E«OMEM 


Entered,  according  to  act  of  Congress,  August,  1894,  by  The  American 
Engraving  Co.,  in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at 
Washington,  D.  C.  All  rights  reserved. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


BY 


ONE  OF  THEM. 


CHICAGO 

THE  AMERICAN  ENGRAVING  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 

1894. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


g With  the  great  Emancipation  Proclamation  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  finally  ratified  by  the  smoke  that 
drifted  away  from  the  last  gun  fired  in  the  Civil  War, 
£ it  was  hoped  and  believed  that  slavery  was  ended  for- 
ever  in  the  United  States.  But  the  twenty-nine  years 
of  peace  that  have  followed — years  musical  with  the 
hum  of  machinery,  knit  together  with  the  threads  of 
■1  countless  industries,  wreathed  with  the  sooty  breaths  of 
'i  tireless  factories,  and  garlanded  with  the  fruits  and 
— grains  of  prolific  harvests — these  years  of  thrift  and 
prosperity  have  been  false  to  humanity  in  their  re- 
£ suits  and  traitors  to  the  lives  that  made  them  bounti- 
^ ful. 

T These  years  have,  in  their  combinations  of  diverse 
~ but  profitable  industries,  created  out  of  the  Ameri- 
I can  Workman — the^American  Slave;  and  to-day  he 
' * stands  up  before  the  world  in  the  disguise  of  a free- 
\ man,  but  in  reality  a pitiable,  helpless  creature,  held 
in  degrading  captivity  by  strong  but  invisible  fetters, 
and  subjugated  by  the  very  powers  he  assisted  in 


3 


4 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


creating  and  maintaining.  The  American  workman  is  j 
only  in  theory  a freeman.  As  a matter  of  fact,  while 
he  is  permitted  to  walk  and  talk  as  he  pleases,  the  i'- 
present  and  future  value  of  his  labors  are  hypothecated 
by  himself,  his  body  is  in  pawn,  or  mortgaged  as  a 
chattel  for  the  redemption  of  his  bonds,  and  the  vol-  \ 
untary  physical  and  mental  servitude  that  succeeds  ' 
ends  in  most  cases  only  with  death.  ' 

This  bondage  is  not,  as  labor  agitators  assert,  the  ; 
result  of  the  enmity  of  capital,  but  only  an  incident 
of  its  exercise.  Natural  laws  require  that  the  rich  ! 
should  scheme  to  be  richer.  The  Political  Scientists  of 
to-day,  in  direct  contrast  to  those  of  the  ancients, 
argue,  in  the  words  of  Dugald  Stewart,  that  “far 
from  considering  poverty  as  an  advantage  to  a State, 
their  great  aim  is  to  open  new  sources  of  national 
opulence,  and  to  animate  the  activity  of  all  classes 
of  the  people  by  a taste  for  the  comforts  and  accom- 
modations of  life.” 

The  Duke  of  Argyle  in  his  book,  “The  Reign  of 
Law”  writes:  “In  all  that  wide  circle  of  operations 
which  have  for  their  immediate  result  the  getting  of 
wealth,  there  is  a sagacity  and  cunning  in  the  in- 
stincts of  labor,  and  in  the  love  of  gain,  compared 
with  which  all  legislative  wisdom  is  ignorance  and 
folly.  But  the  instincts  of  labor,  having  for  their 
conscious  purpose  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  are  in- 
stincts which,  under  the  stimulus  and  necessities  of 


AMERICAN  SLAR'ES 


5 


modern  society,  are  blind  to  all  other  results  whatever. 
They  override  even  the  love  of  life;  they  silence  even 
the  fear  of  death.” 

We  may  reasonably  conclude  from  the  operation  of 
Natural  Laws  that  every  workman  is  ambitious  and 
schemes  to  be  richer  and  to  become  even  a hated 
capitalist,  and  that  the  present  detestation  of  the 
capitalist  as  a so-called  oppressor  is  a result  of  envy 
as  well  as  proofs  of  the  palpable  failure  of  the  work- 
ingman to  succeed  in  his  own  ambitions  and  contri- 
vances to  acquire  wealth. 

The  fundamental  trouble  of  the  workman  is  with 
himself  and  not  with  the  Capitalist,  and  results  in 
producing  a combination  of  forces  that  being  origi- 
nally intended  as  protections,  speedily  are  trans- 
formed into  uncompromising  enemies,  exacting 
every  penalty  attached  to  failure  and  defeat.' 

In  declaring  the  American  workman  to  be  the 
American  Slave  we  base  the  assertion  on  the  fact  that 
however  boisterously  and  defiantly  the  agitators  and 
leaders  may  talk,  and  regardless  of  all  manifestations 
of  aggregated  power  concentrated  in  a few  irrespon- 
sible men,  the  rank  and  file  of  this  great  army  of 
laborers  are  bondsmen — slaves  of  money  lenders  and 
politicians;  unprotected  by  the  State,  uncared  for  by 
the  church,  fought  against  by  woman,  half-heartedly 
befriended  by  the  press,  but  sympathized  with  by  mil- 
lions of  people  who  detest  slavery  in  whatever  form 


6 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


it  may  appear;  and  if  an  indictment  were  to  be  pre- 
pared against  the  people  of  this  country,  it  would  in- 
clude these  active  and  passive  enemies  as  principals 
and  accessories  to  this  treason  against  humanity, 
this  crime  against  civilization,  represented  by  the 
enslavement  of  those  who  exist  by  manual  labor. 


IL 


By  what  right  do  we  dare  assert  that  the  work- 
man is  the  American  Slave,  and  arraign  Church, 
State  and  Woman  as  guilty  parties  in  maintaining 
this  condition  of  servitude?  By  the  right  of  fact. 

Webster  defines  a slave  as— “one  who  has  lost  the 
power  of  resistance;’’  and  of  slavery  as— “It  may 
proceed  from  crimes,  captivity,  or  from  debt^  Of 
debt,  Benjamin  Franklin,  that  philosopher  for  mod- 
ern times  and  modern  people,  declared:  “When  you 
run  in  debt  you  give  to  another  power  over  your 
liberty.” 

We  do  not  believe  it  to  be  an  exaggerated  state- 
ment that  of  every  one  thousand  workmen  at  least 
seventy-five  per  cent  owe  more  than  they  could  pay 
if  immediate  payment  were  requested,  and  that  sixty 
per  cent  cannot  meet  obligations  as  they  come  due  un- 
less by  borrowing  to  obliterate  the  first.  These  obliga- 
tions may  be  reasonable  in  every  respect.  They  may 
be  created  for  a hundred  purposes  legitimately  aris- 
ing from  personal  or  family  needs.  Or  they  may 
form  part  and  parcel  of  modest  speculative  enter- 
prises, and  be  entered  into  with  the  belief,  hope  and 

7 


8 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


faith  that  no  trouble  will  be  met  in  making  a prompt 
settlement.  Sincerity  of  purpose  and  firmness  of 
resolve  are  more  distinctive  characteristics  in  the 
workman  than  in  men  of  professional  or  mercantile 
callings.  Their  sense  or  honor  is  not  blunted  by 
constant  study  of  how  to  overreach  or  undermine 
their  fellow  men.  They  are  keenly  susceptible  to 
imputations  of  unfairness  or  dishonesty  and  like  other 
good  citizens,  are  influenced  not  alone  by  moral 
considerations  but  also  by  fear  of  the  pitiless  enforce- 
ment of  legal  penalties  against  which  business  men 
are  prepared  with  infinite  resources.  There  is 
nothing  disgraceful  in  the  workingman  being  a moral 
coward  where  the  business  man  is  imperturbable  if 
not  brave. 

But  with  this  assumption  of  liabilities,  this  shoul- 
dering of  indebtedness,  great  or  small,  begins  the  ser- 
vitude of  the  workman,  ike  birth  of  the  American 
Slave.  The  public  may,  in  anticipation  of  national 
disgrace,  blindfold  its  eyes;  and  the  slave  himself  may 
deny  his  condition  with  all  the  vehemence  of  which 
the  American  language  is  capable  (and  it  is  an  ener- 
getic tongue  in  the  employment  of  adjectives  and 
adverbs), yet,  from  the  moment  of  the  consummation 
of  his  borrowing,  he  becomes  a slave,  leading,  as  the 
days  go  on,  a life  of  apprehension,  and  feeling  a 
creeping  paralysis  of  the  hopes  and  expectations  that 
animated  him  at  the  beginning. 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


9 


The  workman  in  debt — and  for  workman  we  take 
the  definition  of  Webster,  “any  man  employed  in 
labor,  whether  tillage  or  manufacture” — held  down 
to  a limited  and  precarious  income,  and  soon  realiz- 
ing the  uncertainty  of  his  savings,  recognizes  the  ten- 
ure of  his  creditor  upon  his  time,  his  energies,  his 
actions  and,  almost,  his  thoughts,  and  is  forced  into 
shaping  his  labors  for  the  benefit  of  his  master  rather 
than  confining  them  to  the  natural  requirements  of 
himself  or  his  family.  Environed  and  hampered  by 
money  obligation,  oftentimes  too  lightly  assumed,  and 
at  the  outset  oblivious  of  the  gravity  of  his  new  con- 
dition^ the  workman  soon  finds  that  his  liberty  has 
stealthily  ebbed  away,  that  his  time,  and  the  work  it 
enables  him  to  produce  are  not  absolutely  his;  that 
another  and  strange  party  has  an  interest  in  and  a 
pecuniary  attachment  upon  his  life,  and  its  fruits. 

Once  this  quiet  bondage  is  recognized  the  bond- 
man  begins  to  undergo  a silent  revolution  of  charac- 
ter. Where  he  was  light  hearted  he  grows  moody, 
despondent,  morose,  and  given  to  brooding  over  the 
contingencies  of  failure,  and  to  study  with  bitter  feel- 
ings any  unexpected  drain  upon  his  resources. 
Starting  out  with  an  honest  purpose,  only  the  man 
who  is  or  has  been  in  debt  knows  the  gradually  in- 
creasing and,  finally,  the  tremendous  strain  upon  the 
mind  of  one  unused  to  financial  liabilities.  Let  us 
suppose  a workman  undertakes  to  own  his  own  home 


iO  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

and  runs  in  debt  for^e  few  hundred  dollars  necessary 
to  finish  his  dwelling.  He  does  this  when  times  are 
good,  work  plenty,  wages  remunerative  and  sickness 
an  unknown  and  an  almost  unconsidered  element  of 
chance. 

Reverse  this  condition  in  whole  or  in  part.  Sud- 
denly the  outgo  exceeds  the  income.  How  quickly 
credit  draws  its  purse-strings,  and  a frown  takes  the 
place  of  a smile  on  the  face  of  the  creditor!  Then 
the  food  in  the  house  grows  less  and  the  slave  to 
debt  rubs  against  Starvation,  Sickness  may  come 
and  parental  love  be  constantly  tortured  with 
the  dread  of  suffering  and  loss.  The  savings 
for  interest  and  the  little  surplus  put  aside  for 
such  comforts  as  befit  a man  in  his  station  in 
life,  swiftly  disappear.  Perhaps  this  period  of 
tribulation  brings  death,  and  its  dreadful  signal  flut- 
ters at  the  door  while  the  curious  children  of  the 
neighborhood  stand  around  and  wait,  in  stupid 
amazement,  for  the  coming  and  the  going  of  the  form 
he  held  so  dear  as  mother  or  child.  It  costs  money 
to  live;  to  die  is  also  an  enforced  extravagance.  As 
with  death  so  with  birth — another  mouth  to  feed,  an- 
other form  to  clothe,  another  life  to  be  nourished  and 
cherished  and  fought  for.  The  income  that  never 
increases  is  thus  burdened  with  the  requirements  of 
new  existences,  until  the  sorely  buffeted  struggler  be- 
gins to  wonder  whether  disease,  or  debt,  or  despair, 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


11 


is  to  play  the  tyrant  in  this  tragic  masquerade  of  life* 

Is  a man  so  held  down  and  restrained  by  obligations 
to  others,  so  entangled  in  a web  of  financial  indebt- 
edness, bound,  as  a spider  binds  a fly,  with  tiny 
threads  spun  from  formidable  misfortunes,  is  such  a 
man  bond  or  free?  Can  he,  dare  he  do  as  he  pleases? 
Is  he  the  arbiter  of  his  own  destiny?  No.  It  is  the 
debt  first,  self  last.  Two  penalties  are  always  in  his 
mind — guards  over  his  will — Conscience  and  Ruin. 
Conscience  is  the  underlying  nettle  of  human  life. 
Ruin  is  the  bitter  fruit  of  debt.  The  honest  work- 
man knows  of  no  more  dreadful  scourges  than  these 
two  compendiums  of  existence,  these  two  subjugators 
of  ambition  and  pride. 

What  is  more  pitiable  in  this  republican  life  of  ours, 
supposedly  full  of  Arcadian  ease  and  simplicity,  than 
the  unbulletined  battles  of  the  debt-burdened  work- 
man for  an  absolute  liberty?  What  more  cheerless 
for  human  nature  than  these  continual  struggles  of 
sanguine  men  and  women  to  better  their  condition 
by  discounting  the  rosy  possibilities  of  the  future  and 
pawning  for  a home,  or  for  the  necessities  of  exist- 
ence, their  right  to  “life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,”  transferring  to  money-lenders  and  land- 
speculators  their  little  circle  of  earth  and  the  fruit- 
fulness thereof? 

In  these  cases,  and  their  numbers  are  hundreds 
of  thousands,  we  have  the  survival  of  the  misfits 


12 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


in  human  nature,  in  the  shape  of  workmen  prac- 
tically in  pawn  for  little  city  lots,  not  much  larger 
than  a giant's  grave,  or  broad  acres  over  which 
floats  the  miasma  of  failure.  In  every  community 
these  bondsmen  to  debt  live,  move  and  have  a 
being.  They  live  because,  while  poverty  may  be 
looked  upon  by  the  wealthy  as  a crime,  it  is  not,  un- 
der present  laws,  a penal  offense.  That  they  exist 
under  the  constant  strain  and  pressure  incident  to 
prolonged  mental  torture  is  due,  mainly,  to  the  ob- 
stinate tenacity  of  human  life  in  workingmen’s 
bodies  rather  than  to  an  economical  husbanding,  by 
the  state,  of  his  available  vitality.  That  he  is  recog- 
nized as  a being,  a human  being,  something  a little 
more  useful  than  a horse  or  a cow,  is  almost  entirely 
due  to  the  business  philanthropy  of  the  sagacious 
politician  who  stolidly  computes  the  value  of  votes 
deposited  by  men  who  would  otherwise  be  market- 
able only  as  bundles  of  bones.  A constituency  of 
men  without  hopes  is  more  important  to  the  office^ 
holder  than  a constituency  of  hopes  without  men  is 
to  the  office  seeker.  Let  us  therefore  praise  with 
all  our  might  those  astute  developers  of  the  political 
economy  of  1894  who  protect  the  American  Slave, 
when  he  votes  the  right  way,  with  all  the  thunders 
of  the  vocabulary  of  a ward  politician.  Let  it  be 
understood  that  no  workman  is  so  deeply  in  debt,  so 
thoroughly  a slave,  but  that  he  has  a value — at  elec- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


13 


tion  time.  He  is  then  quotable  in  political  marts; 
his  existence  is  recognized,  and  his  misfortunes  em- 
broidered into  those  appeals  for  the  rights  of  work- 
men which  blaze  like  fireworks  until  after  the  count 
is  concluded,  and  than  fall  into  convenient  oblivion, 
which  is  the  fate  of  all  pyrotechnical  works.  Perhaps 
the  American  Slave,  bonded  to  his  eyes  with  leech- 
like debts,  ought  to  be  grateful  for  these  occasional 
spasms  of  hope  which  for  a very  little  time  strength- 
en his  soul,  if  they  do  not  feed  his  stomach. 

But  when  these  illusions  are  over  and  the  slave 
feels  once  more  the  fetters  of  the  money-lender, 
whose  croak  of  “interest”  succeeds  the  cajoling 
carol  of  the  unwashed  diplomat  of  primaries  and 
polling  booths,  the  slave  becomes,  or  thinks  he  really 
is  again  only  a shriveled  grain  of  the  industrial  har- 
vest, crunched  between  the  upper  mill-stone  of  capi- 
tal and  the  under  stone  of  labor,  to  be  pulverized  so 
fine  that  neither  church  nor  devil  have  use  for  him, 
and  the  parental  state  tolerates  him  only  as  a neces- 
sary evil.  Does  he  weep  ? His  tears  fall  on  sand.  Does 
he  pray  for  aid?  His  appeals  are  smothered  in  a 
hostile  air.  His  work  feels  the  bitterness  of  his 
thoughts  and  is  unconsciously  moved  to  some  expres- 
sion of  sorrow  or  hate.  He  is  honest  in  his  belief 
that  detested  capital  is  fertilizing  its  enterprises  with 
his  energies,  and  that  politicians  assiduously  poultice 
him,  as  an  industrial  carbuncle,  with  elastic  pledges 


14 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


of  redemption  from  bondage  and  with  seductive 
visions  of  a land  and  a life  whose  very  worst  is  the 
very  best  of  the  present.  Still  he  goes  on  with  a 
hopeless  heroism,  living  through  long  days  of  petty 
miseries  and  feverishly  dreaming  and  waking  through 
nights  of  despair.  Of  course  he  is  only  undergoing 
the  grinding  process  to  which  all  men  are  subjected 
who  have  borrowed  money  and  unexpectedly  find 
that  their  outgo  exceeds  their  income.  But  the  work- 
man has  not  the  variety  of  resources  nor  the  elastic- 
ity of  temperament  possessed  by  those  who  are  termed 
business  men,  and,  as  a result,  he  soon  reaches  a 
condition  of  mind  which  makes  him  honestly  believe 
that  the  legal  rights  of  others  are  the  wrongs  of  him- 
self and  his  co-workers;  and  as  human  nature  is 
malevolent,  this  mentally  tortured  slave  becomes, 
like  all  other  kinds  of  slaves,  ready  for  any  conspiracy 
that  will  give  him  again  the  freedom  he  has  bartered 
away,  and  secure  that  revenge  against  his  oppressors 
to  which  he  thinks  his  wrongs  entitle  him.  Debt  has 
made  him  reckless  as  well  as  hopeless,  and  he  adds  to 
his  burden  of  life  the  entanglements  of  a labor  union 
and  gives  away  about  all  that  is  left  him  of  will 
power  and  individuality.  He  becomes  only  one  of  a 
diverse  aggregate,  and  absolutely  powerless  to  help 
himself  in  the  disposition  of  his  labor.  He  increases 
the  drain  upon  his  income  by  assuming  the  obli- 
gations of  dues,  assessments,  strikes  and  boycotts, 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


15 


Other  men  become  his  masters  and  direct  him  when, 
where  and  how  he  shall  work;  and  if  he  has  the 
temerity  to  show  resistance  to  commands  he  at  once 
finds  raised  against  him,  in  violence  even  to  murder, 
the  hands  he  has  clasped  in  the  brotherhood  of  a de- 
fensive and  protective  union,  that,  originating  in 
Philanthropy,  has  become  an  adjunct  of  politics  and 
the  plaything  or  tool  of  ambitious  leaders. 

Here,  in  brief,  is  given  the  evolution  of  the  Amer- 
ican Slave.  No  man  in  chains  was  ever  more  tightly 
bound.  This  servitude  voluntarily  undertaken  is 
dangerously  widespread  and  may  require  an  armed 
insurrection  to  break  it.  President  Debs,  of  the 
American  Railway  Union,  figures  that  the  produc- 
tive industry  of  the  country  is  being  drained  of  its 
profits  by  the  payment  of  over  $5,000,000  a day  in 
interest,  of  which  over  $200,000,000  per  year  goes  to 
Europe  on  account  of  Debt.  “Capital,”  reasons  Mr. 
Debs,  with  this  tremendous  outgo  of  wealth,  and 
the  means  of  its  production  in  his  mind,  “Capital 
insists  upon  looking  upon  labor  as  it  did  on  slavery — 
that  it  has  no  right,  like  capital,  to  exact  or  ask  for 
terms.  The  principle  of  slavery  is  what  capital  is  now 
insisting  on.”  To  which  might  be  added  the  testimony 
of  the  latest  government  census  as  to  what  Debt  is  do- 
ing for  people.  The  figures  are  for  the  State  of  Ohio, 
and  show  that  there  are  27  cities  having  a popu- 
lation of  8,000  to  100,000,  and  in  these  cities  55*95 


16 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


per  cent  of  the  home  families  hire  and  44.05  per 
cent  own  their  homes.  Of  the  home-owning  fami- 
lies 36.26  per  cent  own  with  incumbrances,  and  63.74 
per  cent  own  free  of  incumbrance.  The  average  rate 
of  interest  is  6.85  per  cent;  average  value  of  each 
owned  and  incumbered  home,  $2, 595 ; average  lien 
on  the  same,  $968,  and  average  yearly  interest 
charged  on  each  home,  $66.  If  these  figures  show 
proportionately  throughout  the  Union,  the  workman 
has  every  reason  for  discontent  at  his  lot,  and  every 
motive  to  free  himself. 


III. 


In  most  of  the  discussions  of  labor  troubles  and  in 
all  the  vindictive  assaults  on  capital  as  the  alleged 
cause  of  them,  and  in  all  the  speeches  of  commis- 
eration evoked  by  the  disturbed  condition  of 
the  country  scarcely  a word  has  been  spoken  about 
that  portion  of  the  laboring  classes  called  the  Farmer. 
As  resonant  a note  as  has  been  uttered  came  from 
the  lips  of  Senator  Davis,  of  Minnesota,  when,  in  a 
discussion  of  the  Chicago  strike,  he  remarked  that 
5,000,000  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  or  forty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  producing  population,  are 
farmers. 

“If.  any  one  class  of  the  community  have  the  right 
to  call  themselves,  distinctively,  ‘the  people  of  the 
United  States,  remarked /the  Senator,  “it  is  the 
farmers.  Have  the  farmers  asked  for  the  strike?  Do 
they  sympathize  with  it?  No.  It  is  the  farmer  who 
suffers  every  day  by  it.  The  farmer  may  always  be 
looked  for  on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  and  the  per- 
petuity of  popular  institutions  as  against  every  force 
of  anarchy  and  oppression.”  With  this  speech  the 
Farmer  came  out  of  his  agricultural  obscurity,  and 

17 


18 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


the  public  suddenly  recognized  an  element  in  the 
national  affairs  which  had  escaped  general  attention 
since  the  last  Presidential  election.  It  is  strange  that 
in  labor  troubles  the  Farmer  is  not  considered  as  a 
workman;  yet  Webster’s  definition  of  the  word  work- 
man includes  “a  tiller  of  the  soil.”  It  is  a singular 
omission  of  so  important  a factor  in  public  affairs. 
He  enjoys  no  consideration  in  large  cities  and  towns 
where  only  organized  wageworkers  are  regarded  as 
workmen,  and  as  being  the  victims  of  capitalists;  and 
yet  his  occupation  is  so  important  that  were  his  kind 
of  labor  to  suddenly  cease  throughout  the  world, 
starvation  and  death  would  immediately  follow  such 
a strike.  Will  the  cessation  of  any  other  industry 
culminate  in  such  disaster.?  The  world  has  lived  and 
in  many  countries  now  lives  and  will  continue  to  live 
without  houses,  and  clothes,  and  other  means  of  loco- 
motion than  those  derived  from  animals  or  by  the  use 
of  the  feet;  but  without  agriculture,  and  the  men  who 
follow  it,  there  would  be  famine.  Yet  with  all  his 
power  as  a producer  of  the  absolute  necessities  of 
life  he  has  been,  as  a workman,  one  of  the  most  pow- 
erless creatures  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  is  now 
trying  the  effect  of  combination;  but,  like  his  brother 
slave  of  the  manufactory,  he  has  been  in  the  hands  of 
Shylock;  yet  now,  though  guilty  of  no  crimes,  he  has 
fallen  into  the  net  of  the  Politician.  Between  the 
two  his  moral,  legal  and  industrial  identity  will  be  in 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


19 


all  likelihood,  squeezed  out  of  him,  as  cider  is  pressed 
from  the  apple. 

For  centuries,  yes,  back  to  Bible  times,  poets  have, 
with  sensuous  delight,  portrayed  the  farmer  in  such 
a way  as  to  give  him  the  attributes  of  a mythical 
god.  His  acres  have  been  invoiced  as  a sort  of  Para- 
dise. In  his  outlining  hedges  have  warbled  the 
prima-donna  birds  of  nature;  his  trees  were  bril- 
liant with  the  plumage  of  others  that  wanted  to  but 
could  not  sing;  in  the  fruits  of  his  orchards  were  en- 
closed the  cordials  of  sengual  nature;  his  meadows 
were  carpeted  with  flowers  of  gorgeous  hues  and  ex- 
hilarating perfumes;  his  fields  of  grain  were  sung  of  as 
golden  crowns  under  the  amorous  glare  of  August  suns ; 
through  his  silken  tasseled  corn-fields  breathed,  in 
tuneful  whispers,  voluptuous  winds,  laden  with  songs 
of  abundant  harvests;  his  roof  was  the  star-jeweled 
sky, his  walls  the  horizons;  and  his  life  was  depicted 
as  one  uninterrupted  round  of  festivities  with  the 
elements.  Nature  was  the  mistress  of  this  epicure 
of  the  ideal.  Her  kisses  were  fruits;  her  embraces 
became  great  flocks  and  bountiful  harvests.  She 
wedded  her  lover  with  fields  and  forests,  uplands  and 
meadows,  with  the  glory  of  their  verdure,  the  harmo- 
nies of  their  bird  orchestras,  the  solemn  murmurs 
of  their  insect  life.  She  whispered  in  his  ear  and  he 
heard  but  laughing  brooks  and  humming  streams. 
She  touched  his  eyes,  and  he  saw  the  royal  panoplies 


20 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


of  ever  shifting  skies.  His  days  were  halcyon  and  his 
nights,  bridge-ways  to  heaven.  For  the  old  time  poet 
nothing  was  too  good  for  the  farmer,  from  the  days 
when  “Joseph  fed  his  father’s  flocks”  down  to  a 
period,  not  very  remote,  when  poets  were  plowmen 
and  furrowed  thistles  instead  of  rose  leaves. 

The  ideal  maybe  good  for  the  poets;  but  the  prac- 
tical disillusionizes  those  whose  views  of  nature  are 
confined  to  city  flower-pots,  and  their  knowledge  of 
farmers  to  illustrated  weeklies  and  the  caricatures  on 
the  stage.  The  realist  knows  that  a thundering 
knock  on  the  bed-room  door,  or  a spiteful  alarm 
clock,  instead  of  a nightingale,  awakens  the  husband- 
man in  the  early  morning.  To  milk  the  sweet 
breathed  cow  no  dainty  maid  goes  forth  with  coquet- 
tish eyes,  pinky  white  arms  and  cheeks,  and  jauntily 
tucked  up  skirts,  picturesque  with  embroideries;  her 
face  in  smiles  and  her  hair  in  curls;  slippered  her 
tiny  feet  and  clocked  her  silken  hose;  ribboned  and 
furbelowed  like  the  typical  Chloes  and  Daphnes  on  a 
Dresden  vase;  her  lip  puckered  with  a trill  and  an 
arm,  set  like  a bit  of  coral,  in  the  polished  concavity 
of  a milk  pail;  the  grass  bending  in  adoration  as  she 
comes,  and  rising  in  benediction  as  she  goes,  and  all 
nature  tremulous  with  joy  at  sight  of  such  a beatific 
vision.  No!  No!  This  is  not  the  actual  in  the 
farmer’s  life.  Such  a belle  of  the  barn-yard  could 
not  exist  if  she  would.  Instead  we  have,  in  the  grey, 


American  slaves 


21 


dull  light  of  morning,  Hans,  or  Peterson  or  Mike, 
splashing  in  great  cowhide  boots,  through  grass  wet 
enough  to  swim  in,  carrying  in  one  hand  a pail  of 
bran  mash,  in  the  other  a banged-up  old  pail  and 
under  an  arm  a three  legged  stool.  There  is  no  poesy 
in  his  appearance  and  action;  and  the  milkmaid  of 
song  would  look,  beside  him,  like  a wax  doll  in  a 
coal  mine.  The  birds  do  not  sing  in  the  orchards, 
for  there  is  a scarecrow  and  a gun  awaiting  their 
comings;  the  flowers  do  not  bloom  in  the  hedge 
rows,  and  the  fruits  are  not  spontaneous  eruptions  of 
nature.  Grasshoppers  poach  in  the  grain  fields,  and 
the  potato-bugs  shimmer  in  the  hot  sunshine  and 
carve  their  way  to  early  graves  through  showers  of 
sticks  and  Paris  green. 

The  farmer’s  plow  may  glint  and  gleam  through 
verdant  soils,  like  a running  brook  of  steel;  but  a 
farmer’s  legs  grow  vveary,  and  his  brown  and  wrinkled 
face  is  wet  with  the  dew  of  honest  toil  as  he  guides  his 
flashing  bayonet  of  labor  against  the  rebellious  earth. 
Nature  is,  for  him,  only  an  enemy  to  be  conquered 
and  held  in  subjection;  not  a mistress  to  be  wooed 
and  won  by  whistling,  and  songs  and  smiles.  There 
is  no  poetry  in  his  soul,  and  the  facts  that  he  daily 
confronts  are  disheartening  enough  to  make  the  ordi- 
nary workman  strike  against  the  Great  Spirit  that 
made  the  earth,  and  the  elements  that  influence  it. 
The  farmer’s  seeds  do  not  sow  themselves;  nor  does 


22 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


the  Stubborn  soil  unroll  itself  in  ribbony  furrows, 
ready  for  the  dropping  of  the  grain,  or  the  combing 
of  the  harrow.  If  his  live-stock  is  ailing  he  must 
know  what  to  do  and  be  able  to  do  it  quickly.  Prac- 
tical chemistry  is  part  of  his  study  in  husbandry,  for 
he  must  have  a knowledge  of  fertilizers  and  of  the 
kinds  that  must  be  given  to  different  soils.  He  must 
know  something  of  machinery,  that  he  may  intelli- 
gently use  the  mechanical  aids  placed  at  his  disposal 
by  inventive  minds.  He  must  be  prepared  to  read 
the  weather  signs  of  nature,  and  be  ready  to  meet  their 
requirements  as  to  his  crops  and  his  stock.  He  must 
keep  the  run  of  the  markets,  and  be  prepared  to  ship 
his  harvests,  or  buy  cattle  from  a neighbor,  guided 
by  information  as  to  quotations  and  values.  It  is 
expected  that  he  will  be  up  in  church  work  and  down 
in  politics,  be  intelligent  enough  not  to  lose  his  head 
in  the  county  town,  or  his  person  at  a county  fair. 
His  existence  is  made  up  of  the  sternest  of  realities. 
He  travels  in  a tread-mill,  hubbed  and  felloed  with 
agricultural  necessities.  From  sunup  to  sundown, 
day  after  day,  week  in  and  week  out,  he  struggles 
stubbornly  against  all  the  adverse  elements  of  earth 
and  air.  His  head  grows  bare,  his  eyes  lose  their 
fire ; his  face  becomes  seamy  and  brown,  and  a stony 
fixity  gets  around  the  corners  of  his  mouth ; the 
hands  widen  and  harden.  Under  the  rigor  of  his 
toiling  there  comes  a stoop  to  his  shoulders,  a shuf- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


23 


fling  to  his  feet  and  a sway  to  his  body  that  tells,  more 
eloquently  than  words,  of  the  struggle  he  has  made 
and  is  making  in  the  battle  for  life.  But  when  the 
sons  abandon  their  prospective  heritage  of  farm  life 
and  seek  the  cities;  and  the  daughters  leave  for 
homes  that  promise  more  of  culture  and  ease,  and 
father  and  mother,  grey  haired  and  tottering,  are  left 
to  bear,  alone,  the  burden  of  their  miseries,  then  and 
then  only,  perhaps  the  iron  will  begins  to  falter  and 
the  tough  frame  to  weaken.  Then,  possibly  for  the 
first  time,  the  grandest  type  of  the  American  work- 
man despairs,  seeing  nothing  ahead  of  him  but  the 
grey  shadows  of  death,  while  behind  him  is  stretched 
the  panorama  of  a life  sparcely  flecked  by  the  sun- 
light of  good  fortune. 

The  agitators  of  this  country,  both  political  and  in- 
dustrial, are  fluent  in  their  denunciations  of  the 
money  power  as  the  oppressor  and  slave-maker  of 
the  workman;  but  the  workman  they  mean  is  the 
laborer  of  the  city,  the  trade  unionist,  and  those  with- 
out the  union.  The  hardest  worker  of  all  workers, 
the  least  protected  and  by  the  nature  of  his  employ- 
ment and  his  comparative  isolation,  shut  off  from 
combinations,  is  the  farmer.  And  of  all  the  Ameri- 
can Slaves  his  condition  has  been  the  most  hopeless 
and  promises  soon  to  be  the  most  abject.  We  charge 
that  he  is  a slave  because  he  is  always  in  the  grip  of 
the  money  lender,  always  in  debt  for  land,  or  ma- 


24 


AMBRICAN  SLAVES 


chinery,  or  live-stock,  and  continually  in  mental  tor- 
ments on  account  of  unpaid  principal  and  past  due 
interest.  He  is  so  owned  by  and  subject  to  monop- 
olists and  grain  speculators,  that  he  cannot  truthfully 
call  his  soul  his  own.  To  add  to  the  burden  of  his 
miserable  condition, he  is  the  sport  of  the  elements 
and  the  confidence  men.  Within  the  last  four  years 
he  has  been  used  as  the  cat’s-paw  of  the  politician. 
Let  him  deny  it  as  strongly  as  he  may,  the  professional 
agitator  has  him  by  his  two  ears,  and  into  them,  drop 
by  drop,  fall  the  sugared  words  of  hope,  the  vows  of 
faith,  the  seductive  promises  of  that  Mephistopheles 
of  America,  that  genius  of  apostasy,  the  politician. 
The  farmer  has  been  an  honest  man  in  his  religious 
faith  and  his  party  creeds;  but  he  is  being  bid  for 
and  bought  by  the  mulleins,  the  dandelions  and  the 
pig-weeds  of  all  parties,  and  between  Debt  and  the 
Devil  he  is  retrograding,  not  advancing.  Is  he  in  debt, 
as  a class.?  Read  what  the  Democrats  declared  in  their 
national  platform  of  1892: 

“We  call' the  attention  of  thoughtful  Americans  to 
the  fact  that  after  thirty  years  of  restrictive  taxes 
against  the  importation  of  foreign  wealth  in  exchange 
for  our  agricultural  surplus,  the  homes  and  farms  of 
the  country  have  become  burdened  with  a real  estate 
mortgage  debt  of  over  $2,500,000,000,  exclusive 
of  all  other  form  of  indebtedness;  that  in  one  of  the 
chief  agricultural  states  of  the  West  there  appears  a 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


25 


real  estate  mortgage  debt  averaging  $165  per  capita 
of  the  total  population,  and  that  similar  conditions 
and  tendencies  are  shown  to  exist  in  other  agricul- 
tural exporting  states.” 

Census  statistics  of  the  farm  debts  of  Ohio  show 
that  among  100  farm  families  27  hire  their  farms,  21 
own  them  with  and  52  without  incumbrances.  On  the 
owned  farms  there  are  liens  amounting  to  $70,744, 
771,  or  34.29  per  cent  of  their  value;  and  this  debt 
bears  interest  at  the  average  rate  of  6.68  per  cent, 
or  an  average  interest  charge  to  each  family  of  $88, 
Each  owned  and  incumbered  farm  on  the  average  is 
worth  $3,829,  and  is  subject  to  a debt  of  $1,313. 
Corresponding  facts  for  homes  are  that  54.64  per  cent 
hire  and  45.36  own  their  homes.  Of  the  home 
owning  families  71.02  per  cent  own  free  of  incum- 
brance and  28.98  per  cent  with  incumbrance.  On 
owned  homes  the  debt  aggregates  $61, 145,301,  or 
37. 16  per  cent,  and  bears  interest  at  the  rate  of  6.63 
per  cent,  so  that  the  annual  amount  of  interest  to 
each  home  averages  $58.  An  average  debt  of  $879 
incumbers  each  home,  which  has  the  average  value 
of  $2,366.  A gloomy  picture  is  drawn,  by  a news- 
paper correspondent,  of  the  New  Hampshire  farmer 
in  the  hill  country.  He  writes  that  there  is  no  large 
area  of  land  anywhere  under  cultivation,  and  only 
small  herds  of  cattle.  The  scattered  houses  are  sur- 
rounded by  a garden  patch,  a few  acres  of  corn,  a 


26 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


pasture,  with  dense  woodlands  encircling  all.  “There 
is  no  real  farming.  Each  man  has  his  own  mouth  and 
a smaller  or  larger  circle  of  dependent  mouths  to 
fill,  and  he  goes  at  it  in  a way  that  lies  nearest  to  his 
hand;  in  the  way  that  his  father  went  at  it  before 
him,  and  his  grandfather,  and  his  father.  The  com- 
mercial idea  of  accounting  for  outgoes  and  incomings 
is  no  part  of  their  mental  make-up;  they  live  from 
field  to  mouth,  and  their  horizon  is  bounded  by  the 
store  which  takes  their  butter  and  eggs  in  trade,  and 
the  town  house  where  they  exercise  the  rights  and 
functions  of  American  citizens.”  Debts  he  must  have, 
but  such  ways  of  farming  fertilize  the  money  lender  if 
not  the  land;  and  when  we  read  that  he  attends  to 
politics,  no  difficulty  need  be  experienced  in  rating 
him  one  of  the  American  Slaves  whose  hide  has  over- 
grown his  manacles. 

Notwithstanding  “the  demnition,  horrid  grind”  of 
farm-life,  a “grind”  beside  which  the  work  of  the 
city  workman  is  sport,  and  in  defiance  of  that  incu- 
bus, Debt,  which  fastens  itself,  like  “the  old  man  of 
the  sea,”  upon  the  backs  of  the  sturdiest  of  farmers, 
there  is  an  incursion  of  city  laborers  into  the  country 
to  engage  in  agriculture.  In  Maryland  and  Maine  this 
sort  of  a revolution  is  said  to  be  going  on,  the  adven- 
turers being  those  who  are  disgusted  with  their  failure 
to  obtain  steady  and  remunerative  employment.  These 
city-tired  workers  are,  presumably,  not  burdened  with 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


27 


money,  and  their  enterprises  in  farm  life  must  neces- 
sarily be  based  to  a large  extent  on  borrowed  money, 
and  the  result  will  be  that  they,  too,  will  come  under 
the  pitiless  squeeze  of  Debt.  The  trade  unionist 
may  declaim  against  his  condition  until  the  world  is 
deafened,  but  he  may  always  find  the  farmer  just  a 
little  worse  off  than  himself  as  to  personal  rights. 
The  farmer  is  swimming  in  a sea  of  debt.  He  is 
drowning  in  it;  and  every  labor  strike  that  interferes 
with  the  gathering  and  transportation  of  his  crops 
and  the  marketing  of  his  cattle  has  the  same  effect 
as  shoving  his  head  under  water.  Yet  he  is  a good, 
sturdy,  honest  workman,  a credit  to  humanity  and 
an  honor  to  the  state,  slave  though  he  is  to  money 
lenders,  corporations,  monopolists  and  politicians. 

Is  the  farmer’s  moral  and  political  strength  bid  for.? 
Take  the  latest  platforms  of  the  Democratic,  Repub- 
lican, People’s  and  Prohibition  parties.  Almost  every 
line  of  them,  and  “the  words  between  the  lines,”  are 
promises  to  pay  for  his  support  when  delivered.  All 
the  chicanery  of  dishonest  intellects  is  being  employ- 
ed to  still  further  enmesh  him  by  pledges  that  cannot 
be  redeemed,  and  by  pictures  of  liberty  and  prosper- 
ity that,  under  present  conditions,  cannot  be  realized. 
What  this  farmer  slave  will  do  for  himself  remains 
to  be  proven. 


IV. 


In  intimating  that  labor  combinations,  or  unions 
as  they  are  generally  termed,  are  slave  makers  and 
slave  holders,  we  have  no  intention  of  assailing  the 
original  purpose,  or  decrying  the  possible  benefits 
of  these  organizations.  We  know,  as  the  Duke  of 
Argyle  puts  it,  that  ‘‘when  the  working  class  com- 
bine for  the  protection  of  their  own  labor  against  the 
effects  of  unrestricted  competition,  they  are  simply 
taking  that  course  which  is  recommended  alike  by 
reason  and  by  experience.’^  Again,  he  writes:  “Nor 
can  there  be  any  greater  mistake  than  to  suppose 
that  this  course  involves  necessarily  any  rebellion 
against  the  laws  of  economic  science.  Combination 
is  an  appeal  to  the  most  fundamental  of  all  natural 
laws — to  the  law  oi  contrivance — to  the  power  of  ad- 
justment— wielding,  through  Reason  and  Conscience, 
the  elementary  forces  of  Human  Character.”  But 
while,  theoretically,  Combination  may  promise  an 
approximate  adjustment  of  industrial  differences,  it 
has,  so  far,  succeeded  in  making  only  initial  efforts 
which  were  frustrated  in  their  incipiency  by  the  im- 
becile management  of  the  leaders,  who,  instead  of 

28 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


29 


being  judicial  in  their  workings  and  proceeding  with 
diplomatic  slowness  and  gravity,  slapped  society  in 
the  face  with  the  gauntlet  of  war,  and  tried  to  accom- 
plish by  sudden  violence  results  that  could  only  come 
through  slow  and  tedious  legislation.  The  Duke  of 
Argyle  in  his  Law  in  Politics  says  that — “all  the 
sources  of  error  which  have  so  long  perverted  legis- 
lation are  equally  powerful  in  perverting  the  aims  and 
in  misdirecting  the  efforts  of  Voluntary  Association. 
If  the  upper  classes,  with  all  the  advantages  of  leisure, 
and  of  culture,  and  of  learning,  have  been  so  unable, 
as  we  have  seen  them  to  be,  to  measure  the  effects 
of  the  laws  they  made,  how  much  more  must  we  ex- 
pect errors  and  misconceptions  of  the  most  griev- 
ous kind  to  beset  the  actions  of  those  who — through 
poverty  and  ignorance,  and  often  through  much 
suffering — have  been  able  to  do  little  more  than  strike 
blindly  against  evils  whose  pressure  they  could  feel, 
but  whose  root  and  remedy  they  could  neither  see 
nor  understand!  Accordingly,  the  history  of  com- 
bination among  the  working  class  has,  until  a very 
recent  period,  been  a sad  history  of  misdirected  effort 
— of  strength  put  forth  only  in  violence  and  disorder, 
and  of  the  virtues  of  Brotherhood  lost  in  tyrannical 
suppression  of  all  individual  freedom.” 

The  lax  enforcement  of  laws  in  America,  together 
with  a personal  license  of  action  of  individuals,  per- 
missible in  no  other  country,  makes  the  Duke’s  dec- 


30 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


laration  an  emphatic  verdict  of  slavery  against  mem- 
bers of  American  Combinations,  The  English  work- 
man knows  that  he  has  a government  and  a firm  one; 
but  the  workman  of  America  considers,  and  some- 
what reasonably  as  affairs  go,  that  he  is  the  govern- 
ment; but  when  he  assigns  to  a leader  his  individuality 
and  his  will  power  in  labor  matters  he  is  twice  as 
much  a slave  as  the  Englishman;  for  he  abandons 
much  more  liberty  and  accepts  a master  less  saga- 
cious and  less  consistent,  because  he  is  more  virulent 
and  less  legislative  in  his  methods,  and  plans  for  a 
dictatorship  over  serfs  rather  than  studies  for  a gen- 
eralship with  and  for  equals.  The  industrial  revolts  of 
the  last  ten  years  verify  the  assertion  that  while  the 
workman  has  gained  some  important  advantages  dur- 
ing that  time,  the  results  have  come,  not  as  a source 
of  skillful  leadership,  for  none  has  been  shown,  but 
from  the  sense  of  justice  in  the  hearts  of  the  masses, 
a justice  requiring  justice;  while  the  leaders  in  such 
futile  displays  have  been  dropped  into  an  ignomini- 
ous oblivion.  Experience  has  not,  however,  taught 
the  combinations  any  lessons  in  strategy,  for  they 
proceed  to  repeat  the  actions  that  made  them  in- 
glorious in  their  victories.  Perhaps  the  American 
workman,  if  allowed  to  think  and  act  for  himself 
outside  of  the  decrees  of  the  leaders  of  combinations, 
might  do  well  to  consider  these  words  of  Professor 
Rogers,  a writer  on  work  and  wages,  who  says: 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


31 


“The  English  workman  has  his  future  now  very 
largely  in  his  own  hands.  He  has  only  to  remember 
that  progress  for  him  lies  not  in  revolution,  or  even 
in  general  strikes,  but  in  persistent  insistence;  not 
on  paternal  but  on  democratic  fraternal  legislation, 
the  people  becoming  the  government  and  obtaining 
their  rights  through  it.’^  But  it  should  be  kept  clearly 
in  mind  that  in  this  country  such  “fraternal  legis- 
lation’^ cannot  be  obtained  when  the  people  are  at- 
tacked, even  though  indirectly,  through  capital.  Pub- 
lic sentiment  may  be  with  the  spirit  of  the  unions; 
but  it  will  never  countenance  or  forgive  any  act  in- 
fringing upon  the  rights  of  property  or  person.  If 
the  members  of  such  combinations  choose  to  aban- 
don their  rights  as  individuals  and  allow  them  to  be 
capitalized  for  the  use  and  behoof  of  one  man,  they 
should  not  forget  that  in  so  doing  they  also  abandon 
claims  to  public  sympathy,  and  weaken  by  acts  of 
violence  the  amity  that  is  evinced,  as  a natural  law, 
for  the  weaker  party  in  any  struggle. 


V. 


When  the  Lord  created  man  He  could  not,  in  His 
infinite  tenderness  and  mercy,  sinful  though  we  might 
be,  have  contemplated  the  evolution  of  that  scourge 
of  civilization,  the  professional  politician.  If  his  pro- 
genitor got  into  the  ark  it  could  only  have  been  be- 
cause Noah  was  a candidate  for  some  office  not 
named  in  history,  and  took  this  ancestral  passenger 
on  trust.  If  he  is  an  afterthought,  a hybrid  of  the 
creator,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  has  no  genealog- 
ical record.  We  know  that  he  exists  everywhere,  and 
that  while  we  are  trying  to  make  the  best  of  him  he 
is  certainly  successful  in  making  the  worst  of  us. 
Honorable  businesses  we  have  by  the  score.  The  men 
who  conduct  them  grow  in  public  esteem  because 
they  deal  uprightly  with  communities.  The  dis- 
honest are  under  the  taboo  of  decent  society.  When 
this  generation  was  young,  toddling  along  on  legs 
scarcely  strong  enough  to  carry  it,  the  counselors 
and  guides  were  straightforward,  honest  men.  They 
schemed,  and  fought,  and  died  to  secure  liberty  of 
thought  and  action.  They  were  animated  by  no 
greed  of  public  plunder.  Public  offices  were  public 

33 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


33 


honors;  and  the  men  who  occupied  them  possessed 
such  ideal  and  idyllic  patriotism  that  their  virtues 
were,  until  a few  years  ago,  transmitted  to  succeeding 
-generations  in  spelling  books  and  readers,  as  well  as  in 
the  histories  of  their  period.  To-day,  statesmen  in 
this  country  are  curios,  and  the  memories  of  old-time 
patriots  survive  only  in  threadbare  legends  and  stale 
epics.  If  Washington  and  his  contemporaries  were 
alive,  but  could  not  vote,  they  would  be  the  most 
friendless  lot  of  antiquities  of  which  it  is  possible  for 
the  mind  of  man  to  conceive.  Upon  the  tombstones 
of  all  statesmen  of  the  revolutionary  era,  yes,  even 
down  to  thirty  years  ago,  ought  to  be  chiseled,  as  a 
bitter  truism, “Only  a back  number.” 

Our  miraculous  increase  in  population,  the  diverse 
people  coming  to  our  shores  as  paupers  or  as  crea- 
tures to  be  fed  by  the  quasi  charity  of  public  work; 
the  multiplication  of  offices  embellished  with  large 
salaries;  the  legislative  creation  of  grants,  trusts, 
subsidies,  syndicates,  and  monopolies;  the  ac- 
couchement of  huge  corporations,  and  the  awarding 
of  momentous  pubjjc  contracts,  with  hundreds  of  little 
leeches  fastening  themselves  on  public  bodies  and 
public  laws,  producing  a fermentation  of  iniquities 
impossible  in  other  countries,  all  have  resulted  in  pro- 
ducing a school  that  is  sarcastically  termed  the  school 
of  politics.  Man  is  born,  but  the  politician  just  hap- 
pens, being  an  evolution  from  the  country  or  city  loafer 


34 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


(an  identity  but  little  higher  than  that  of  a tadpole), 
and  graduating  into  a composite  so  full  of  the  chica- 
neries of  public  life  as  to  be  inimical  to  the  people 
and  a curse  to  the  country.  It  is  absurd  for  the 
workman  to  denounce  the  capitalist  when  at  his  ear 
whispers  continually  the  politician,  who  is  more 
powerful,  more  dangerous  to  the  masses,  more  shame- 
less in  his  capitalizations  of  votes,  then  the  most 
bloated  bond-holder  of  the  land.  You  can  track  the 
man  of  wealth.  He  is  too  big  to  be  hidden;  but  the 
professional  politician  works,  like  the  burglar,  in  the 
dark.  Pursuing  the  nefarious  and  inscrutable  tricks 
of  his  trade,  he  buys,  sells  and  givfes  away  votes. 
Whose  votes.?  The  workman’s  and  nobody  else’s; 
for  the  rich  either  does  not  go  to  the  polls,  or  going, 
quickly  retires  from  a mart  in  which,  if  he  has  any 
interest  and  is  working  at  all,  is  through  brokers. 
The  ballot  of  the  laborer  is  used,  and,  with  its  con- 
solidated power,  obtains  the  controlling  influence  in 
the  public  affairs  of  wards,  villages,  towns,  counties, 
states  and  finally,  the  nation  itself.  The  pivot  on 
which  turns  the  machinery  of  our  systems  of  govern- 
ment is  suffrage.  Votes  delivered  and  to  be  de- 
livered at  primaries,  at  conventions,  and  at  the  polls 
have  now  become  staple  and  quoted  goods  in  the 
political  market,  and  pass  current  for  offices  of 
honor,  trust  and  emolument.  The  citizen  surren- 
ders his  ballot  and  the  politician  takes  the  benefit  of 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


85 


it  in  public  office.  It  is  hard  to  bring  an  honest  man 
down  to  a belief  in  this  debauchery  of  the  people’s 
confidence;  and  no  language  is  vigorous  enough  to 
properly  express  the  condemnation  that  should  be 
given  to  these  hucksters  of  ballots. 

What  have  the  people  to  say  as  to  public  officers? 
Theoretically  a good  deal,  but  practically  nothing. 
They  vote  at  the  primaries,  but  do  the  primaries  se- 
lect the  candidates?  What  are  conventions  but  com- 
binations of  office  holders  or  office-seekers.  Nomi- 
nations are  not  by  the  people.  Presidents  are  not 
created  by  the  masses  but  by  delegates  who  are  in 
touch  with  the  people  only  up  to  a certain  point. 
^‘Dark  horses”  in  conventions  are  not  the  people’s 
candidates.  The  Senate  of  the  nation  is  made  up  of 
men  who  are  in  no  sense  from  the  people,  and  who 
do  not  voice  the  wishes  of  the  public.  A large  pro- 
portion of  court  judges  are  lawyers  who  move  heaven 
and  earth,  in  a political  sense,  doing  all  sorts  of 
doubtful  work,  to  secure  a place  on  the  bench.  The 
Supreme  Court  of  the  land  is  filled  by  appointment 
as  a reward, directly  or  remotely,  for  political  services 
rendered  by  somebody.  No  public  place  is  so  high 
that  the  mark  of  the  political  trickster  is  not  seen  on 
the  lintel  of  the  office  doorway.  Even  the  army  is 
smirched  by  the  party  gifts  of  positions  of  honor  and 
pay. 

Besides  these  ever-growing  disgraces,  the  country  is 


36 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


subjected,  every  four  years,  to  months  of  unrest, 
consequent  upon  party  fights  for  the  Presidency. 
Business  is  seriously  interfered  with  by  the  bitter 
struggle.  The  news  of  the  daily  and  weekly  jour- 
nals is  made  up  of  at  least  thirty  per  cent  of  untruths 
about  candidates  for  office,  and  the  platforms  on 
which  their  claims  for  the  people’s  ballot  are  based. 
We  live  in  a continual  and  irrepressible  insurrec- 
tion of  lies;  we  are  participators  in  the  most  gigantic 
confidence  games  that  ever  disgraced  humanity;  we 
are  unnecessary  falsehoods  from  the  day  we  cast  our 
first  vote  until  the  time  the  last  one  is  dropped  into 
the  ballot  box;  and  all  this  disgrace  is  incurred  in  or- 
der that  men  who  cannot  earn  an  honest  living  as 
other  men  earn  it  may  grow  fat,  imperious  and  inso- 
lent by  the  grace  of  God,  the  sufferance  of  man,  and 
the  taxes  of  millions.  It  is  constantly  quoted,  as  a 
compliment  to  our  Republican  form  of  government, 
that  we  are  governed  too  little.  Figure  it  out  once 
in  your  own  mind  how  extensive  and  intricate  are 
the  ways  of  our  rulers.  Begin  with  the  saloon  keeper, 
end  with  the  President,  and  compute  the  intervening 
rulers  who  influence  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  citizens. 

The  more  political  parties  there  are  the  more  com- 
plicated are  the  systems  for  manipulating  the  public, 
and  the  more  onerous  the  penalty  we  pay  for  the 
privilege  of  citizenship  and  suffrage.  Every  party 
platform  breeds  discontent  in  the  people,  because  it 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


37 


tells  them  what  evils  and  wrongs  they  suffer  under 
existing  administrations,  and  'demonstrates  how 
a change  would  benefit  the  country.  If  any  one  con- 
siders that  our  indignation  is  too  hot  for  this  abomina- 
ble subject  and  that  it  is  childish  to  even  hint  at 
the  prevalent  dishonesty  and  corruption  pervading 
every  party,  why  not  take  the  words  of  the  parties 
themselves,  as  solemly  proclaimed  in  their  national 
platforms  of  1892?  Let  us  begin  with  the  declaration 
of  the  People’s  Party,  it  being,  presumably,  an  ex- 
pression of  the  beliefs  of  a large  number  of  the  labor 
class.  This  document  asserts  that — “corruption 
dominates  the  ballot  box,  the  legislature,  the  congress, 
and  touches  even  the  ermine  of  the  bench.  The 
people  are  demoralized;  most  of  the  states  have  been 
compelled  to  isolate  the  voters  at  the  polling  places 
to  prevent  universal  intimidation  or  bribery.” 

If  the  writers  of  this  plank  in  the  platform  did  not 
believe  their  assertion,  then  they  are  liars.  If  they 
did  believe  it,  and  if  the  people  for  whom  it  was  issued 
believe  the  charges,  and  if  those  to  whom  it  appeals 
recognize  the  truthfulness  of  the  statement,  then  the 
indictment  confirms  proportionately  the  position  we 
have  taken. 

But  there  is  another  new  party — the  Prohibition — 
that,  having  dropped  its  swaddling  clothes,  and  found 
its  voice,  proclaims  that — “We  arraign  the  Republi- 
can and  Democratic  parties  as  false  to  the  standards 


38 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


reared  by  their  founders;  as  faithless  to  the  principles 
of  the  illustrious  leaders  of  the  past  to  whom  they 
do  homage  with  the  lips;  as  recreant  to  the  higher 
law,  which  is  as  inflexible  in  political  affairs  as  in 
personal  life,  and  as  no  longer  embodying  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  American  people, or  inviting  the  confidence 
of  enlightened,  progressive  patriotism,’’  and  concludes 
with, “The  competition  of  both  these  parties  (Demo- 
cratic and  Republican)  for  the  vote  of  the  slums,  and 
their  assiduous  courting  of  the  liquor  power,  and 
subserviency  to  the  money  power,  have  resulted  in 
placing  those  powers  in  the  position  of  practical 
arbiters  of  the  destinies  of  the  nation.” 

Meanwhile  the  old  topers  of  straight  orthodox 
drinks  line  themselves  up  before  the  people,  and  the 
Republicans  chant  that  “the  free  and  honest  popu- 
lar ballot,  the  just  and  equal  representation  of  all 
the  people,  as  well  as  their  just  and  equal  protection 
under  the  laws,  are  the  foundation  of  our  republican 
institution.” 

To  this  the  Democrats  retort:  “We  warn  the  people 
of  our  common  country,  jealous  for  the  preservation 
of  their  free  institutions,  that  the  policy  of  the  fed- 
eral control  of  elections,  to  which  the  Republican 
party  has  commended  itself,  is  fraught  with  the 
gravest  dangers,  scarcely  less  momentous  than 
would  result  from  a revolution  practically  establish- 
ing monarchy  on  the  ruins  of  the  Republic. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


39 


‘‘Such  a policy,  if  sanctioned  by  law, would  mean 
the  dominance  of  a self-perpetuating  oligarchy  of 
office  holders,  and  the  party  first  intrusted  with  its 
machinery  could  be  dislodged  from  power  only  by  an 
appeal  to  the  reserved  right  of  the  people  to  resist 
oppression, which  is  inherent  in  all  self-governing  com- 
munities.” 

What  is  an  honest  man  to  believe  in  politics  when 
each  party  accuses  the  rest  of  rascality  of  the  worst 
kind?  Are  these  carpenters  of  political  consciences, 
these  manufacturers  of  convention  morals,  these 
creators  and  expounders  of  dogmas  in  political 
creeds,  to  be  accepted  as  leaders?  Strip  these  pa- 
triots of  their  bunting  and  you  have  the  lean  and 
hungry  politicians,  smiling  oilily  in  their  nakedness, 
true  angle-worms  of  morality  and  vile  beggars  in 
persistency.  They  are  after  votes — nothing  else — the 
votes  of  workmen.  It  is  strange  that  the  laborer 
never  sees  how  he  is  fooled  by  this  clumsy  trickery. 
It  is  a disgrace  to  his  manhood  that  instead  of  think- 
ing for  himself  he  allows  these  schemers  to  think 
and  act  for  him. 

When  Jones  or  Smith  or  Brown  promises  a can- 
didate one  hundred  or  five  hundred  or  one  thousand 
votes,  as  is  done  all  the  time,  and  everywhere,  what 
does  he  mean?  He  can  vote  but  once  as  matters  are 
now  arranged;  therefore  it  follows  that  he  has  secured 
by  purchase,  or  by  promises  of  gifts  of  a public  or 


40 


AMERlCAh!  SLARES 


personal  character,  the  balance  of  his  guaranteed 
support.  In  other  words,  he  has  tied  up  for  deliv- 
ery just  so  many  votes  of  workmen.  He  has  bought 
those  votes.  There  is  a price  or  a pledge  given  for 
each.  To  get  them  he  has  inflamed  their  passions;  he 
has  craftily  made  them  dissatisfied  with  governments 
as  they  are,  and  allures  them  with  pictures  of  the  ad- 
ministrations as  they  will  be  under  this  new  order  of 
things.  Unreasoning  and  inconsiderate,  the  dissatis- 
fied workman  forswears  his  manly  individuality, 
pledges  his  influence  under  the  rainbow  promises  of 
his  tempter,  becomes  a slave  to  this  insatiable  plot- 
ter and  plunderer,  to  find,  at  the  end,  that  he  has 
bartered  for  professional  lies  that  nobility  of  a true 
manhood,  that  grandest  attribute  of  human  existence, 
an  irreproachable  conscience. 


VI. 


We  have  accused  Politics  of  being  the  debaser, 
the  enslaver,  a detestable  factor  of  discontent  among 
the  industrial  classes.  We  have  no  longer  states- 
men to  guide  the  ignorant  or  the  undecided,  but  pro- 
fessional politicians,  tricksters,  who  make  a business 
of  moulding  public  sentiment  in  hundreds  of  sinister 
ways  and  of  utilizing  the  people’s  resources  and 
remedies  for  their  personal  gain.  It  is  idle  to  urge 
the  dissatisfied  to  right  their  Wrongs  at  the  polls. 
They  will  not  or  cannot  do  it.  Party  leaders  have 
prearranged  affairs,  as  generals  plan  battles,  and 
ward  heelers  whip  in  their  followers.  Party  before 
manliness  is  the  keystone  in  the  arch  of  party 
strength.  A party  victory  means  not  so  much  a 
change  of  principles  as  a retention  or  a change  of  plun- 
derers. The  criminal  indifference  and  political  ser- 
vility of  the  citizen  has  much  to  answer  for  as  to  the 
prevailing  corruption  in  office  and  the  usurpation  of 
public  powers  for  private  purposes.  Once  in  a while 
a dignitary  of  the  Church  is  moved  to  remonstrance. 
Archbishop  Ireland,  commenting  on  the  disturbed 
condition  of  this  country,  is  reported  to  have  said: 

41 


42 


AMERICAN  SLAySS 


“The  difficulty  is  that  state  and  city  officials  are  some- 
times so  solicitous  of  political  interests  and  party 
considerations  that  they  fear  to  offend,  and  allow 
social  troubles  to  grow  until  repression  seems  impos- 
sible. The  need  of  this  country,  is  lofty,  disinter- 
ested patriotism  which  forgets  all  minor  allegiances 
in  presence  of  the  general  welfare,  and  has  the  cour- 
age to  make  all  sacrifices  that  may  be  needed  to  up- 
hold this  welfare.”  This  is  a delicately  conservative 
view  of  the  evil,  but  entitled  to  serious  consider- 
ation when  we  remember  how  little  the  Catholic  or 
any  church  meddles  with  politics.  The  Rev.  John 
H.  Barrows,  a prominent  minister  in  Chicago,  in  a 
sermon  on  the  strike  remarked; 

“Upon  the  people  is  thrust  the  responsibility  of 
choosing  representatives  who  will  make  righteous 
laws  and  who  will  righteously  execute  those  laws. 
This  is  a duty  to  our  fellow  men,  to  society  and  to 
God,  who  thus  calls  us  into  cooperation  with  himself. 
When  we  come  to  look  at  the  tacts  we  must  be  ready 
to  acknowledge  our  personal  guilt.  Taking  our  duties 
to  our  city  as  an  example  of  all  our  political  duties,  it 
is  grotesque  when  we  come  to  consider  how  they  are 
discharged.  The  prevailing  facts  with  the  citizens 
are  indifference  and  ignorance.” 

Theoretically  the  power  of  the  citizen  is  great; 
but  in  practice  the  politician  is  the  dictator.  The 
citizen  does  not  make  the  laws  nor  does  he  select 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


43 


the  man  who  does  make  them.  The  construction  is 
the  mosaic  work  of  the  trained  school-men  of  politics, 
who  take  great  care  that  the  legislators  they  send 
shall  construct  laws  which  will  be  so  flexible  and  so 
porous  as  to  be  available  for  both  saint  and  sinner. 
The  citizen  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  legislation 
in  any  shape,  or  even  with  selecting  his  representa- 
tives in  legislative  or  judicial  bodies.  He  takes  his 
medicine  like  a man,  and  does  his  spitting  afterwards. 
President  Debs,  of  the  American  Railway  Union,  in 
one  of  his  addresses  says:  “The  ballot  box  is  where 
we  have  to  unify  and  strike  off  the  shackles  which  en- 
slave us  all.”  Mr. Debs  did  not  mean  by  this  to  do 
what  must  be  done  to  ensure  freedom — amputate  the 
politician  from  the  workman;  but  he  did  mean  to 
vote  at  the  polls  for  a new  set  of  task  masters,  se- 
cured, as  all  others  have  been  obtained,  by  the  per- 
fected machinery  of  politics. 

Who  suffers  more  than  the  American  Slave  by  this 
expanding  conspiracy  of  the  politician,  whose  power 
has  become  so  great  as  to  make  him  the  autocrat  of 
suffrage  and  the  selector  of  public  authorities  from 
a village  constable  to  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
nation  .■•  If  the  politics  of  the  present  day  were  pure 
or  patriotic  in  their  tendencies,  or  conserving  a good 
and  substantial  government,  there  would  be  no  good 
cause  for  this  outcry  of  despair  by  the  New  York 
Tribune  in  its  comments  on  recent  congressional 


44 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


scandals  and  municipal  rascalities:  “No  reader  can 
rise  from  these  daily  disclosures  without  heaviness  of 
heart.  Whatever  may  be  his  partisan  bias,  he  must 
have  a sense  of  humiliation  when  he  reflects  upon 
these  evidences  of  a temporary  failure  of  American 
ideas  and  a corresponding  discrediting  of  republican 
institutions  and  democratic  government.  What  is  there 
in  all  these  recitals  to  convince  impartial  readers  that 
American  civilization  has  not  gone  wrong  and  proved 
to  be  very  much  of  a failure.^  We  know  of  no  re- 
deeming features  except  the  candor  and  honesty  of 
the  press  and  the  increasing  signs  of  public  indig- 
nation and  revolt  against  corruption,  dishonor  and 
immorality  in  politics.’^ 

The  Northwesterit  Christian  Advocate  says: 
“Strikes  are  but  one  result  of  privileged  monopoly 
purchased  from  legislators.”  Henry  George,  the 
single  tax  advocate  and  communist,  is  reported  to 
have  said  in  a Cooper  Union  speech,  that  “million- 
aires made  their  money  by  robbery  and  debauchery, 
by  the  purchase  of  judges  and  legislators,  and  now 
they  wanted  to  preserve  it  by  the  bayonets  and  the 
arms  of  the  federal  troops.”  The  News  of  Indianap- 
olis, Ind.,  flashes  out  in  an  editorial  salute  to  the 
effect  that  the  United  States  Senate  “no  longer  rep- 
resents the  people  of  the  United  States.  It  no 
longer  represents  the  various  states  of  the  Union.  It 
is  purely  an  industrial  body.  There  are  sugar  trust 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


45 


Senators,  planter  Senators,  silver  Senators,  coal  Sena- 
tors, iron  Senators,  collar  and  cuff  Senators,  pottery 
Senators,  etc.,  and  they  all  stand  together.  The  re- 
sult is  that  legislation  has  come  to  be  a sort  of  com- 
promise between  conflicting  interests,  agreed  to  by 
their  representatives  in  Congress.  There  is  no 
thought  of  the  needs  or  wishes  of  the  country  at 
large.”  To  the  accumulation  of  such  degradations, 
born  in  innumerable  litters  by  all  parties,  new  and 
old,  might  be  added  a public  measure  enacted  by  the 
legislature  of  New  York,  to  prevent  vote-buying  by 
making  it  a penal  offense  to  induce  voters  not  to 
register  or  vote.  The  burden  of  purchasing  votes 
was  a heavy  tax  on  parties;  but  when  they  were 
forced,  in  addition,  to  buy  men  not  to  vote,  the  capi- 
talists in  suffrage  wealth  thought  it  time  to  begin 
their  strike. 

Has  it  been  forgotten,  so  soon,  that  the  great  civil 
war  of  1 86 1 was  brought  on  by  the  politicians — poli- 
ticians of  the  old  school,  it  is  true,  but  modern 
enough  in  their  tendencies  to  see,  with  prophetic 
eyes,  the  offices  and  emoluments  of  the  new  confed- 
eracy, and  diplomatic  enough  to  make  treason  pala- 
table in  the  North.?  The  strikes  of  to-day  are  the  re- 
sults of  the  political  plottings  of  party  men  who  rec- 
ognize in  every  jolt  and  jar  of  industrial  labor  a 
chance  for  party  gain  and  an  extension  of  party 
power.  A greater  field  of  operations  is  wanted,  and  a 


46 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


government  ownership  of  the  railroads  and  telegraph 
is  one  of  the  reforms  demanded  by  the  nurses  of 
baby  parties  and  wall-eyed  agitators.  Allowing  that 
the  government  could  satisfy  the  public  in  the 
management  of  these  complex  systems  of  transit,  it 
would  simply  place  several  hundred  thousand  more 
offices  at  the  disposal  of  the  politicians.  There  is 
danger  enough  already  to  the  republic  in  this  burden 
of  public  patronage,  or,  to  put  it  more  accurately, 
“party  spoils.”  In  1891  the  total  number  of  govern- 
ment employees  was  173,435.  This  included  con- 
gress, the  members  of  which  are  wage  getters  if  not 
wage  earners.  In  1817  there  were  only  5,008  office 
holders,  of  which  3,056  were  in  the  postal  service. 
From  1883  to  1891  the  increase  of  this  class  of  em- 
ployees was  39. 1 per  cent.  Let  us  add  the  present 
force  at  a moderate  estimate  of  500,000  men  Fbr 
railway  and  telegraph  service,  or  nearly  700,000  em- 
ployees. It  is  not  exaggerating  their  influence  to 
credit  each  of  such  employees  with  the  power,  on  the 
average,  to  influencce  ten  men  not  office  holders. 
This  would  place  at  the  control  of  the  party  leaders 
seven  million  of  active  workers,  or  more  votes  by 
nearly  one  half  than  were  cast  in  1892  by  either  the 
Republican  or  Democratic  factions,  the  Democrats 
having  5,534,267  and  the  Republicans  5,175,201 
votes.  With  such  an  omnivorous  horde  of  office 
holders,  by  what  possible  plan  could  an  adminis- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


47 


tration  be  changed?  How  could  the  public  be  rid 
of  a vampire  party  with  as  many  mouths  as  that?  • 
The  country  would  be  threatened  continually  with 
an  unlimited  monarchy,  as  no  President  could  have  a 
successor  unless  he  chose,  and  no  ambitious  man 
would  so  choose. 

To  support  such  a retinue  of  insatiable  officials 
would  tax  to  an  extreme  all  the  resources  of  the  gen- 
eral government.  The  cost  for  maintaining  this  gov- 
ernment for  1890  was  $352,218,674.  The  support 
of  state,  county  and  city  governments  and  of  public 
common  schools  for  1 890  drew  from  public  treas- 
uries $563,736,441,  or  a per  capita  tax  of  $13.65. 
The  sapient  law  makers  and  tax  assessors,  with  a due 
regard  to  the  wealth  of  the  people,  made  them  pay 
$125,000,000  more  than  the  amount  needed,  and  of 
course  drew  interest  on  this  overplus.  The  burden 
of  this  taxation,  as  of  all  others,  fell  upon  real  estate, 
which  composes  about  60  per  cent  of  the  wealth  of 
the  country.  As  the  farmer  counts  in  this  computa- 
tion he  can,  as  an  American  Slave,  comprehend  why, 
under  the  manipulations  of  politicians,  he  gets  poorer 
the  richer  he  grows,  and  be  convinced  that,  as  a 
heavily  burdened  workingman,  he  ought  to  have 
more  to  say  about  labor  agitation  and  labor  laws 
than  the  man  who,  owning  nothing,  dictates  to  the 
law-makers  or  tries  his  own  hand  at  law-making. 

From  this  superficial  consideration  of  dominant 


48 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


power  under  our  form  of  government,  it  is  astonish- 
ing that  the  laboring  man,  constantly  tricked,  threat- 
ened or  cajoled,  by  professional  politicians,  should 
tamely  submit  to  their  rule,  and  in  politics,  as  in 
finance,  voluntarily  enslave  himself  by  an  absolute 
surrender  to  them  of  his  will  and  his  ballot.  It  is  in- 
conceivable that  intelligent  men  should  calmly  surren- 
der to  a political  party  their  right  to  think  and  act 
for  themselves,  knowing,  as  they  must,  that  all  meas- 
ures obnoxious  to  their  interests  are  conceived  and 
enacted  by  hostile  capital,  and  nursed  to  a lusty 
fruition  by  the  very  politicians  whom  they,  the  work- 
men, put  in  power  and  keep  there.  Next  to  Debt, 
the  American  Slave  has  no  more  insidious  enemy  or 
intolerant  task-master  than  this  Mephistopheles  of 
politics,  to  whom  he  assigns  his  freedom  of  the  bal- 
lot and  for  whose  benefit  placidly  waves  his  right  of 
sturdy  rebellion  against  unprincipled  measures  and 
irresponsible  men. 


VII. 


It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  industrial  classes 
of  this  country  have,  in  immigration,  one  of  the  worst 
evils  which  labor  has  to  encounter.  Political  econ- 
omists, workmen,  ministers  of  the  gospel,  embryo 
statesmen,  party  warriors  dented  with  the  raps  of 
scores  of  battles,  all  admit  the  debilitating  effect  of 
this  influx  of  foreign  labor  and  foreign  idlers.  In  a 
recent  letter,  Mr.  George  A.  Shufeldt,  known  as  a 
close  student  of  labor  questions,  writes:  “For  the 
last  thirty  or  forty  years  the  policy  of  our  country  has 
been  such  that  labor  has  been  at  a higher  and  better 
rate  than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  Here 
every  man  could  get  double  the  money  he  could  earn 
at  home.  Here  were  free  schools  for  his  children, 
and  homes  and  bits  of  land  for  himself  and  his  family. 
Here  he  had  no  military  duty  to  perform.  His  time 
was  his  own  for  labor  and  for  profit.  Here  he  be- 
came a citizen,  a voter,  and  a politician.?  He  could 
now  open  a saloon  and  become  an  alderman  or  a 
member  of  the  legislature.  These  great  and  manifest 
advantages  attracted  the  surplus  population  of  the 
whole  world.  In  every  family  in  the  old  countries  in 

49 


50 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


which  a boy  grew  up,  provision  was  made  for  sending 
him  to  America.  With  some  good  we  got  lots  of 
bad;  with  the  paupers  of  Ireland  we  got  also  the 
beggars  and  assassins  of  Italy,  the  anarchists  of 
Germany  and  Bohemia,  the  Jews  of  Russia,  and, 
generally,  the  thugs  of  Europe.  Well,  the  result 
was  this:  We  got  more  labor  than  we  could  em- 
ploy. Those  already  here  wanted  to  keep  the  places 
and  the  pay,  the  new  comers  wanted  work  and  offered 
to  sell  their  labor  cheaper,  and  so  competition  was 
produced.  The  fact,  then,  is  this:  We  have  taken 
these  people  in  faster  than  we  could  find  employment 
for  them  and  faster  than  we  could  educate  and  as- 
similate them.” 

This  sort  of  overfeeding  with  immigrants  has  been 
going  on  for  years.  Last  year  (1893)  there  was  an 
extraordinary  decrease  of  immigration,  principally 
owing  to  the  cholera  in  Europe,  and  the  quarantine 
regulations  in  connection  with  this  plague.  Never- 
theless, 439,730  people  came  to  America.  Of  this 
horde  of  mixed  races'the  women  amounted  to  159,- 
386;  89, 577  were  under  15  years  of  age;  311,531 
were  over  15  and  under  40  years  old;  and  47,622  were 
over  40.  Assuming  that  they  told  the  truth  about  their 
occupations,  there  were  1 14,295  who  were  laborers, 
presumably  men  who  knew  nothing  more  than  how 
to  use  their  muscles;  209,767  had  no  occupation; 
89,598  had  alleged  trades  and  professions;  and 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


51 


34,070  were  farmers,  presumably  peasant  laborers. 
There  were  returned,  under  the  law,  1,630  people 
who  were  convicts, lunatics,  paupers,  etc., — 2,801  be- 
ing sent  back  in  1892,  when  the  total  immigration 
footed  up  623,084.  Of  the  immigrants  of  1893, 
57,897  could  not  read,  59,582  could  not  write,  and 
61,038  could  neither  read  nor  write;  10,406  brought 
$1.00  over  with  them  and  246,565  brought  less  than 
$100  each.  Since  1820  foreign  countries  have 
sent  to  the  United  States  12,874,876. 

These  few  figures  are  sufficient  to  excite  ominous 
apprehensions  as  to  the  future  of  the  country  under 
such  an  influx  of  undesirable  humanity.  Note  the 
small  number  of  skilled  workmen,  and  of  workmen 
with  professions.  Naturally  these  people  would 
come  into  immediate  competition  with  those  al- 
ready here;  and,  of  course,  by  increasing  the  supply 
of  labor  they  weaken  the  price  it  has  been  receiving. 
The  209, 767  immigrants  without  trade  or  profession 
came  into  an  overstocked  market,  and,  as  a result, 
contractors  were  able  to  secure  foreign  labor  for  a 
much  less  sum  than  they  had  been  paying  for  work 
in  large  cities,  on  railroads,  and  in  mining  regions. 
This  difference  of  competition  was  very  marked,  and, 
of  course,  greatly  to  the  disadvantage  of  men  who 
had  been  in  this  country  for  years,  and  had  acquired, 
by  the  right  of  citizenship,  the  right  to  remunerative 
pay. 


53 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


Foreign  farmers  we  would  accept  without  a mur- 
mur if  they  at  once  went  upon  farms  and  became 
productive  factors  of  labor.  The  wealth  brought  by 
these  people  did  not  make  them  desirable  additions 
to  the  country,  over  a quarter  of  a million  of  them 
bringing  less  than  $ioo  each.  It  is  reasonable  to 
assume  that  the  last  named  class  at  once  sought  oc- 
cupations in  large  cities,  and  entered  into  that  bitter 
conflict  for  bread  and  butter  which  prevails  in  all 
municipalities  where  labor  is  cheap  and  the  necessi- 
ties of  life  dear.  This  class  of  labor  soon  finds  out 
what  the  prevailing  wages  are,  and  they  are  insanely 
willing  to  underbid  for  employment  on  a basis  of 
wages  that,  compared  with  the  wages  in  their  old 
country,  is  a princely  stipend.  They  do  not  have  to 
change  their  habits  of  life  immediately,  and  are,  on 
landing,  equipped  for  a hearty  fight  with  men  whose 
mode  of  living  has  become  through  years  of  industri- 
ous citizenship  one  of  comparative  luxury.  The 
struggle  of  these  people  for  employment,  being  prin- 
cipally in  large  towns,  develops  at  once  a bitter  an-, 
tagonism,  a class  and  race  hatred,  the  immigrant  not 
only  turning  against  his  wage-competitor,  but, 
through  the  politician,  who  gets  him  in  hand  almost 
as  soon  as  he  is  landed,  there  is  planted  the  seeds  of 
a bitter  animosity  against  the  men  through  whose 
wealth  he  gains  the  means  of  living. 

If  these  shuckings  of  poverty  from  the  old  world 


AMERICAN  SLAVES  53 

had,  immediately  after  their  arrival,  been  forced  to 
the  woods  or  the  prairies,  and  compelled  to  assist  in 
tilling  some  of  the  unoccupied  millions  of  acres  the 
government  holds  in  waiting  for  tenants,  the  results 
would  be  of  a natural  and  permanent  character.  But 
these  adventurers  will  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  They 
come  to  attack  the  sources  of  living  of  men  already 
here.  They  gather,  like  flies,  in  great  labor  centers, 
and,  in  the  market  of  unskilled  labor,  present  a for- 
midable front,  and  of  their  services  the  employer,  a 
man  usually  without  sentiment,  quickly  avails  himself. 

Here  we  have  a labor  competition  that  cannot  be 
adjusted;  nor  can  it  adjust  itself  so  long  as  this  great 
current  of  human  life  is  turned  upon  these  shores  to 
the  detriment  of  society  in  general,  and  the  workmen 
already  here  in  particular.  Politicians,  shrewd  as  they 
are  in  schemes,  and  dishonest  in  pledge  and  perfor- 
mance as  they  generally  prove  to  be,  are  unable  to 
regulate  this  feature  of  the  labor  contest.  They  want 
to  keep  the  clay  already  moulded,  but  fear  to  manip- 
ulate the  new  material  when  it  is  opposed  to  what 
they  have,  as  an  enemy  to  the  creature  already  under 
their  manipulations. 

The  appeals  of  intelligent  labor,  the  protests  of 
men  lessened  in  their  opportunities  of  work  by  these 
continued  and  menacing  incursions  of  foreign  cheap 
labor,  and  the  assaults  of  an  alarmed  press  upon  an 
evil  that  is  overlapping  the  country  with  an  element 


54 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


that  foments  discords  and  breeds  insurrections,  at 
last  forced  the  sentiment-makers  of  the  different 
political  parties  to  embody  in  their  national  platforms 
expressions  against  the  wholesale  admission  of  foreign 
labor.  The  Republicans,  in  their  creed  of  1892,  dis- 
pose of  the  matter  in  this  one  sentence:  “We  favor 
the  enactment  of  more  stringent  laws  and  regulations 
for  the  restriction  of  criminal,  pauper  and  contract 
immigration.” 

In  this  the  party  showed  its  cowardice,  for  the 
labor  people  of  the  country  care  very  little  for  the 
forbidden  classes  referred  to,  but  do  care  when  over 
a quarter  of  a million  of  the  cheapest  kind  of  work- 
men are  annually  thrown  upon  a market  in  which 
labor  is  already  overstocked  with  home  material. 
If  there  is  not  work  enough  for  all  at  fair  wages,  why 
do  party  factions  pauperize  the  industry  of  the 
country  with  an  unceasing  inflow  of  raw  material  to 
increase  that  supply  and  diminish  the  wages.^ 

The  Democratic  party  is  as  tenderfooted  in  this 
matter  as  the  Republicans.  Neither  of  them  has 
yet  dared  to  come  boldly  forward  and  demand  a 
reasonable  protection  for  American  labor  by  re- 
stricting that  from  abroad;  both  seem  fascinated  by 
that  glittering  tinsel  of  a sentiment  of  early  times 
that  this  country  should  be  the  asylum  of  “exiles  for 
conscience*  sake.”  They  know,  in  their  hearts,  that 
all  they,  the  politicians,  need  of  these  new  comers. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


55 


are  their  votes, and  ^‘exiles  for  conscience’  sake”  now 
means  anarchists  and  the  breeders  of  revolutions  in- 
imical to  the  great  country  in  which  they  find  refuge, 
and  where  they  are  not  wanted.  The  Democrats 
declared  in  their  national  convention  of  1892,  the 
following: 

“We  heartily  approve  all  legitimate  efforts  to  pre- 
vent the  United  States  from  being  used  as  a dump- 
ing ground  for  the  known  criminals  and  professional 
paupers  of  Europe,  and  we  demand  the  rigid  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws  against  Chinese  immigration  or  the 
importation  of  foreign  workmen  under  contract  to 
degrade  American  labor  and  lessen  its  wages;  but  we 
condemn  and  denounce  any  and  all  attempts  to  re- 
strict the  immigration  of  the  industrious  and  worthy 
of  foreign  lands.” 

This  position  is  incomprehensible.  Many  danger- 
ous criminals  from  Europe,  paying  their  way  like 
regular  passengers,  are  landed  every  week  in  New 
York  or  some  other  seaport.  Unrecognized  anarch- 
ists, murderers,  robbers  and  even  well-to-do  profes- 
sional paupers  have  no  difficulty  in  effecting  a landing. 
Those  who  were  found  out,  from  their  poverty,  and 
sent  back,  only  amounted  to  a trifle  over  2,000. 

What  danger  is  there  to  American  laborers  from 
2,000  people  who  do  not  work.?  None.  But  there  is 
incalculable  wrong  to  the  industrial  classes  in  allow- 
ing a quarter  of  a million  of  men  and  women  to 


56 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


come  from  abroad,  and  contest  with  the  forces  already 
here,  for  that  subsistence  the  means  of  obtaining 
which  are  being  annually  lessened.  Why  oppose 
Chinese  immigration,  when  Italy  contributed  over 
72,000  immigrants  in  1894 — immigrants  who  come 
here  to  work  for  less  money  than  the  native  workman 
demands;  who  live  on  bananas  and  foul  air,  and  who 
send  out  of  the  country  all  they  can  earn.?  Is  such 
a foreigner  better  or  worse  than  the  Chinaman.?  Is 
it  consistency  to  exclude  one  race  on  account  of  the 
slant  of  their  eyes,  and  admit  another  because  a 
Caesar  and  his  Brutus  made  its  progenitors  famous.? 

But  the  Prohibition  party,  ambitious  to  reform  the 
country  by  attempting  to  drain  the  pools  of  politics 
without  first  disinfecting  them,  has,  in  its  platform 
for  1892,  this  idea  of  reform: — “Foreign  immigration 
has  become  a burden  upon  industry,  one  of  the  fac- 
tors in  depressing  wages  and  causing  discontent; 
therefore  our  immigration  laws  should  be  revised  and 
strictly  enforced.  The  time  of  residence  for  natural- 
ization should  be  extended,  and  no  naturalized  per- 
son should  be  allowed  to  vote  until  one  year  after 
he  becomes  a citizen.”, 

Here  is  the  key-note  to  an  absolutely  needed  re- 
generation. One  of  the  intolerable  causes  which 
lead  to  the  slavery  of  the  American  workman  is 
pricked  by  the  lancet  of  this  reform  party.  The 
thing  to  be  inferred  and  feared  is,  that  like  all  new 


American  slaves 


5^ 


reform  organizations,  having  an  ambition  to  better 
the  condition  of  humanity,  this  one  may  grow  weak 
in  its  purpose,  and,  as  it  attains  power,  bury  its  initial 
effort  to  benefit  the  workman  in  the  cesspools  of  its 
victories. 

Whatever  happens,  this  utterance  of  the  Prohi- 
bitionists was  louder  and  more  to  the  real  issue  be- 
tween home  and  foreign  labor  than  the  resolution 
adopted  by  the  People’s  party  convention— a reso- 
lution not  incorporated,  however,  in  the  platform. 
It  was  to  this  effect: — ‘‘That  we  condemn  the  fallacy 
of  protecting  American  labor  under  the  present  sys- 
tem, which  opens  our  ports  to  the  pauper  and  crimi- 
nal classes  of  the  world,  and  crowds  out  our  wage- 
earners;  and  we  denounce  the  present  ineffective 
laws  against  contract  labor,  and  demand  the  further 
restriction  of  undesirable  immigration.” 

Here  we  have  what  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
serious  expression  of  the  remedial  ideas  of  the  four 
great  political  divisions  of  this  country.  The  problem 
to  which  they  allude  is  not  so  perplexing  as  their  lead- 
ers would  have  a person  believe.  It  can  be  summed 
up  in  one  question:  Do  the  workmen  of  this  country 
want  two  men  at  half-wages  to  do  the  work  of  one 
man  at  full  wages?  If  immigration  labor  added  ma- 
terially to  the  productive  resources  of  the  country, 
its  unobstructed  inflow  might  be  stoically  accepted 
as  permitting  the  existence  of  an  evil  that  good  might 


58 


AMERICAN  SLAyBS 


come;  but  when  it  weakens  the  wage-earning  possi- 
bilities of  men  already  in  the  field,  it  would  seem  to 
be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  act  quickly  and  energetic- 
ally in  enacting  laws  which,  if  not  prohibitory,  will, 
in  any  event, make  every  foreigner  of  some  real  value 
to  the  nation.  But,  as  the  Cincinnati  Tribune  says, 
— “Now  that  the  harm  has,  in  a large  measure,  been 
wrought,  the  American  people  are  beginning  tardily 
to  recognize  the  evils  that  the  ‘scum  of  the  earth’ 
have  brought  among  them,  and  the  sentiment  in 
favor  of  rigid  restriction  of  immigration  grows  apace. 
But,  in  the  meantime,  the  poison  is  at  work.  The 
vicious,  the  ignorant,  the  depraved,  the  dangerous 
imported  members  of  society  are  with  us  and  are 
manifesting  their  presence  yearly  with  more  frequency 
and  boldness.” 

That  these  immigrants  have  no  strong  ties  to  bind 
them  to  the  United  States,  and  that  they  do  not  hon- 
estly renounce  their  allegiance  to  iheir  mother  land, 
is  shown  by  their  willingness  and  financial  ability  to 
leave  the  country  when  it  is  agitated  by  labor  dis- 
sensions. Immediately  following  the  strike  of  1894, 
the  foreign  steamship  companies  made  their  passage 
rates  to  Europe  ridiculously  small,  and,  as  one  re- 
sult, thousands  of  unemployed  foreigners  took  pas- 
sage for  Europe  because,  with  their  savings,  they 
could  pay  their  fares  and  live  there  for  a time  more 
cheaply  than  in  America.  During  the  month  of  July 


AMERICA>i  SLAVES 


69 


the  emigrants  from  the  port  of  New  York  alone  num- 
bered 19,963,  steerage  passengers  only.  Coming 
into  the  country,  during  the  same  month,  were  only 
11,549  immigrants,  from  the  following  countries: 
1,928  came  from  Germany,  2,011  from  Russia, 
1,727  from  Italy,  1,031  from  Ireland,  922  from  En- 
gland, 157  from  Scotland,  760  from  Sweden,  308  from 
Denmark,  420  from  Norway,  790  from  Austria,  423 
from  Hungary,  176  from  France,  105  from  Portugal, 
135  from  Finland,  and  the  remainder  in  small  num- 
bers from  other  countries.  No  wonder  that  Mr.  Debs, 
in  denouncing  the  unborn  tariff  of  his  party,  declared 
that  ‘‘while  they  put  a tariff  on  what  it  would  benefit 
you  to  have  come  in  free,  they  opened  the  ports  and 
welcomed  the  riffraff  of  Europe.  They  put  no  tariff  on 
Poles  and  Dagos.  They  send  to  Europe  for  the  foreign 
element  that  has  pushed  American  workmen  from 
their  once  happy  homes.’’  When,  if  ever,  quiet  is  re- 
stored here,  and  they  find  their  money  nearly  exhaust- 
ed, these  people  will  once  more  return  to  contest  with 
domestic  labor  for  the  means  of  subsistence.  If  the 
American  workman  is  in  doubt  as  to  the  great  causes 
which  contribute  to  the  continuance  of  his  bondage, 
let  him  give  a careful  study  to  immigration  statistics 
and  foreign  labor  puzzles.  Then  he  can  compre- 
hend why  the  fifty-cent  a day  man  of  Europe  and 
Asia  is  in  such  a hurry  to  become  the  dollar  and  a 
half  a day  man  of  the  United  States;  and  how,  when 


60 


AMERICAN  SLAFES 


hard  times  come,  the  thrifty  foreigner,  of  a few  years 
residence,  is  able  to  abandon  his  temporary  home 
in  America  and  return  to  his  birth-place  to  excite  the 
envy  of  friends  by  his  little  wealth,  and  perhaps 
spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  their  midst  in  the  proud 
position  of  a retired  capitalist. 


VIII. 


It  may  be  unchivalrous  to  condemn  the  participa- 
tion of  woman  in  the  enslavement  of  the  workman; 
nevertheless  she  has  become  a formidable  accessory 
to  the  creation  and  maintenance  of  this  bondage, 
and  as  such  accessory  must  submit  to  a discussion  of 
her  attitude — which  is  hostile — and  of  her  acts — 
which  are  attacks  upon  workmen  in  particular,  and 
upon  all  men  workers  in  general.  There  is  an  un- 
pleasant logic  about  facts  from  which  shrink  even 
the  most  callous  of  natures;  and  it  is  not  a matter  of 
surprise  that  sensitive  woman  repels  with  abhorrence 
the  slightest  intimation  that  she  is  in  any  way  to  be 
harshly  judged  for  the  part  she  has  been  playing,  of 
late,  in  the  drama  of  existence. 

Until  within  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  certain 
avocations  were  allotted,  almost  without  opposi- 
tion, to  the  fair  sex,  and  men  regarded  what  was  left 
as  being  theirs  by  the  natural  laws  of  existence;  and 
it  was  conceded  that  women  should  not  be  com- 
pelled to  labor  in  the  fields,  toil  in  shops,  or  perform 
any  of  the  acts  of  drudgery  which  custom  had  allotted, 
and  rightfully,  to  men.  Woman,  poor  or  rich,  had  a 

61 


62 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


special  sphere  in  the  world — a round  of  domestic 
duties  and  labors,  for  which  she  was  fitted  by  her  sex, 
and  which  immemorial  usage  had  made,  in  a manner, 
sacred.  Wife  and  mother  were  words  and  positions  in 
life  that  made  woman  a creature  to  be  regarded  with 
pure  love,  and  treated  with  a loyalty  and  an  adoration 
which  the  present  generation,  from  its  experience, 
fails  to  comprehend. 

Why  this  change,  this  revolution.?  Simply  be- 
cause woipan  has,  in  business  life,  forced  herself  into 
various  occupations,  and  brought  herself  down  to 
the  vulgar  level  of  vulgar  men;  because  she  has 
stripped  herself  of  the  characteristics  of  love  and 
tenderness  which  are  universally  regarded  as  and  con- 
ceded to  be  the  insignia  of  womanhood;  because  an 
inappeasable  appetite  for  notoriety,  a craze  for  sensa- 
tions, and  consuming  vanity  and  envy,  have  metamor- 
phosed her,  unsexed  her,  wrenched  her  from  the 
pedestal  where  men  had  adoringly  placed  her, 
and  upon  which  they  had  fixed  their  eyes  with 
devotion  that  has  filled  the  pages  of  history  with 
stories  of  chivalrous  deeds.  Once  idols  whom  man 
worshiped,  they  have  abandoned  their  realms  and 
rule  and  descended  to  the  highways  of  life  to  fight 
against  men  whose  chief  object  in  living  is  to  provide 
a home  and  subsistence  for  their  families.  It  has  been 
a silent  but  an  irresistible  and  deplorable  revolution 
of  sex;  and  man,  not  yet  absolutely  a savage  in  his 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


63 


treatment  of  woman,  has  had  the  worst  of  the  fight. 
He  discovers  that  in  all  but  the  most  brutal  of  em- 
ployments, or  in  those  requiring  great  strength,  he 
is  being  forced  to  contend  with  the  cheap  and  un- 
satisfactory labor  of  women.  He  recognizes  that  from 
the  harvest  field  to  the  highest  grades  of  the  mechani- 
cal arts  woman,  not  more  skillful  in  work  but  much 
cheaper  m wages,  is  his  implacable  competitor.  Let 
us  scan  the  list  of  occupations  which  women  are  fol- 
lowing. We  find  them  as  workers  in  fields  and  market 
gardens;  in  factories  and  printing  offices;  as  tailors, 
in  shops,  stores,  business  offices,  cigar  stands,  tele- 
phone and  telegraph  operating  rooms,  as  typewriters 
and  saleswomen,  and  even  in  barber  and  butcher- 
shops.  We  note  them  as  lawyers,  doctors,  archi- 
tects, ministers,  dentists,  lecturers,  promoters  of 
syndicates  and  monopolies,  board  of  trade  specula- 
tors, dabblers  in  stocks  and  bonds, corporation  officials, 
and  other  occupations  not  strictly  pertaining  to  those 
of  the  workingman,  but  which  are,  at  the  same  time, 
evidences  of  the  encroaching  selfishness  of  women 
and  her  indifference  to  and  disregard  of  the  absolute 
necessities  of  men. 

Every  woman  who  enters  upon  a business  that,  not 
many  years  ago,  was  accorded  to  men  by  right  of 
sex  or  the  heritage  of  usage,  keeps  one  man  out  of 
that  sort  of  work,  lessens  his  field  of  opportunities, 


64 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


forces  him  into  the  overcrowded  ranKS  of  other  pur- 
suits, while  at  the  same  time  she  removes  herself 
from  the  peculiar  social  position  to  which  nature  and 
custom  has  assigned  her.  This  industrial  conflict  of 
sexes  would  not  be  so  censurable,  nor  so  adverse  to  the 
humanities  of  life,  if  women  made  this  incursion  a 
permanent  condition  of  their  labor  calling.  The 
contrary  is,  however,  the  truth.  In  the  majority  of 
cases  these  usurpations  of  the  avocations  of  men 
are  caused  by  an  inordinate  vanity  that  stops  at 
nothing  in  the  effort  to  obtain  attractive  clothing, 
fine  jewelry,  luxuries  in  food  for  the  body,  or  the 
brain,  or  the  eyes,  or,  more  important  than  all,  the 
attentions  of  men  carried,  with  dogged  pertinacity, 
to  a point  that  secures  a husband.  This  last  ambition 
gratified,  the  woman  usually  retires  to  the  amenities 
of  domestic  life,  revolutionized  as  to  all  the  softer  at- 
tributes of  her  sex,  giving  to  social  and  maternal 
duties  the  asperities  of  her  business  career,  and  mak- 
ing way  for  successors  who  follow  a similar  round  in 
life  with  the  same  purpose,  and,  generally,  with  the 
same  results. 

It  is  from  such  causes  that  man’s  fields  of  labor 
are  being  gradually  restricted  and  redistributed,  and 
the  value  of  his  compensation  reduced  by  the  super- 
abundant and  voracious  labor  of  women;  and  woman 
herself  loses  the  soft  and  delicate  points  of  refine- 
ment that  come  with  her  birth,  and  becomes  an 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


65 


avaricious,  scheming,  mercenary  creature,  hardened 
to  and  imitating  men’s  ways  and  forms  of  speech, 
and  accepting,  with  but  little  shrinking  of  soul,  but 
with  great  shrinking  of  character,  a levity  of  atten- 
tion that  borders  too  often  on  looseness. 

The  position  is  a perilous  one  for  reputations,  no 
matter  how  fearlessly  it  may  be  met,  or  how  purely, 
on  the  woman’s  part,  it  may  be  sustained.  She  is  on 
territory  where  she  does  not  rightfully  belong;  she  has 
appropriated  employments  that  have  been  originated 
for  and  by  men,  and  she  holds  these  acquisitions  not 
so  much  by  ability  or  qualification  as  by  that  cheap- 
ness of  labor  that  is,  in  itself,  one  of  the  most  de- 
moralizing evils  inflicted  upon  industry.  Woman  is 
claiming  and  seizing  upon  what  she  is  pleased  to 
term  her  rights,  regardless  of  the  fact  that,  with  her 
encroachments  in  the  labor  fields,  for  temporary  pur- 
poses, she  opens  the  way  for  her  sisters,  and  crowds 
out  of  line  a family-supporting  father  or  brother.  It  is 
true  that  woman  should  have  employments  by  which 
to  earn  a living  when  she  has  neither  father,  brother 
nor  husband  to  earn  it  for  her;  but  they  should  be 
womanly  means  and  not  the  avocations  of  men;  and 
all  the  sacredness  and  refinements  of  home  life  should 
not  be  abandoned  so  that,  a few  years  hence,  they 
will  be  considered  as  subjects  only  suitable  for  the 
madrigals  of  poets  and  the  legends  of  the  compilers 
of  histories  of  the  unique  and  disused  habits  of  society. 


66 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


This  is  an  age  of  queer  revolutions  and  grotesque 
revenges;  but  it  is  not  the  age  when  women  should 
conspire,  and  succeed  in  their  conspiracies,  to  ex- 
tirpate man  because  Adam  ate  the  apple  given  him 
by  seductive  Eve.  Cheap  labor  is  not  confined  to 
the  Chinese  only.  If  women  would  not  work  unless 
for  the  same  compensation  given  to  men,  then  they 
would  not  get  work.  Women  consider  housework 
degrading;  but  is  not  the  degradation  of  office  and 
shop  life  worse.?  Why  be  the  slave  of  a floorwalker 
or  forewoman  rather  than  the  menial,  if  such  must 
be  the  term,  of  “the  lady  of  the  house?”  In  fact, 
why  abandon  womanly  callings  and  still  try  to  be  a 
woman  ? 

More  women  than  men  are  born,  and  under  the 
present  labor  conditions  the  workman’s  slavery,  creat- 
ed  by  Debt  and  the  politician,  is  not  softened  by  the 
cheap  labor  of  woman;  and  his  future  certainly  does 
not  seem  to  be  stocked  with  alluring  hopefulness;  for 
if  to  this  increase,  by  natural  laws,  of  these  filchers 
of  man  labor  from  a population  already  on  the  soil, 
there  is  the  continual  addition  of  a grosser  and 
more  selfish  material  of  the  same  sex,  by  immigra- 
tion, then  woman’s  as  well  as  man’s  difficulties  in 
the  struggle  for  a livelihood  are  wofully  augmented, 
and  the  pangs  of  her  political  weakness  intensified. 
What  is  called  the  “old  world”  has  been  inordinately 
generous  with  its  useless  surplus  population,  getting 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


67 


rid  of  the  poorest  in  order  that  the  best  might  remain 
and  survive;  and  transferring  to  the  United  States 
the  fundamental  evils  of  labor,  the  surplusage,  to 
Europe's  gain  or  our  detriment.  The  census  of  1890 
showed  that  30,554,370  women  helped  to  make  the 
total  of  62,622,250  souls.  Sinc^  1820  and  up  to  1890 
we  have  had  from  abroad  2,040,702  women  immi- 
grants, of  which  number  1,724,454  were  without 
trade, profession  or  occupation.  In  1892,  38  per  cent 
of  the  total  incoming,  or  236,771  were  women;  and 
for  1893,  of  the  total  arrivals  (439, 730),  159,386 
were  women.  They  do  not  journey  over  the  sea  on 
a picnic,  for  a ^‘constitutional,'^  or  for  any  other  pur- 
pose than  to  get  a living.  And  they  do  get  it.  But 
for  every  winner  among  this  class  there  is  a corre- 
sponding loser,  male  or  female,  among  the  workers 
already  here;  and  as  they  rise  from  lower  to  higher 
grades  of  labor  new  comers  from  abroad  fill  the  va- 
cant places,  and  are  new  materials  in  the  wall  that 
is  being  built  upon  the  territory  of  the  man-worker. 
Worse  than  this,  the  country  has,  during  recent 
strikes,  been  treated  to  repeated  exhibitions  of  the 
anti-law-and-order  tendencies  of  many  of  these  for- 
eign women,  who  have  raised  their  hands  in  violence 
against  workmen,  and  shrieked  the  vilest  anathemas 
upon  the  law,  its  officers  and  those  whom  these 
officers  were  commissioned  to  protect.  Hell  may 
have  its  finished  furies;  but  in  that  line  this  “free 
and  glorious  repu  blic"  surpasses  it. 


68 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


In  this  brief  consideration  of  woman  in  the  ranks 
of  labor  we  have  omitted  any  discussion  of  her  in- 
terference in  political  affairs.  Party  contests  affect  the 
workman  more  by  their  enmity  to  his  true  interests 
than  by  any  honest  effort  t o befriend  him;  and  to  in- 
crease the  scope  and  elements  of  political  aggran- 
dizement is  only  to  add  to  what  we  insist  are  the 
slavemaking  powers  of  the  time.  The  saddest  phase  in 
this  self-dethronement  of  woman  from  that  position 
of  love  and  reverence  in  which,  for  ages,  she  has 
been  held  in  all  civilized  communities,  is  her  partici- 
pation in  matters  of  suffrage.  The  greed  for  power, 
the  lust  for  office,  the  itch  for  notoriety,  are  begin- 
ning the  debasement  of  the  womanhood  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  No  language  has  been  severe  enough 
in  denouncing  the  abominations  of  what  we  are 
pleased,  in  this  country,  to  call  politics,  but  which  is, 
in  reality,the  perpetual  perpetration  of  unpunishable 
crimes  by  means  of  the  ballot  box.  The  political 
history  of  this  country  is  a record  of  unpardonable 
and  ineffaceable  disgraces,  running  from  the  crimes 
of  electoral  colleges  down  to  the  petty  rascalities  of 
township  elections;  yet,  with  such  a shameful  line- 
age for  the  ballot  box  and  its  patrons,  American  wom- 
en come  out  of  the  golden  glory  that  has  surrounded 
them  and  demand  a participation  in  the  contests  and 
a share  of  the  spoils.  Where  is  the  man  so  lost  to 
inherent  self  respect  as  to  advocate  the  cooperation 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


69 


of  mother,  sister,  sweetheart  or  wife  with  the  crea- 
tures whose  chicaneries  allot  the  simple  citizen  little 
else  than  the  privilege  of  voting  ? Where  women 
have  everything  to  gain  but  nothing  to  lose,  in  the 
strife  of  politics  they  must  take  the  medicine  that 
men  take;  but  matters  are  radically  different  when 
they  have  everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain.  In 
Kansas,  where  pernicious  fads  are  on  bills  of  fare  for 
political  meals,  the  woman  suffragists  have  imitated 
the  men  by  making  a deal  for  power,  offering  and 
promising  to  support  the  Populists  if  the  Populists 
would,  in  their  convention,  declare  for  woman  suf- 
frage. A pretty  picture,  this,  for  the  study  of  reform- 
ers and — women!  At  the  very  outset  there  is  bargain, 
and  sale — just  like  men’s  ways — and  dishonest  ones 
at  that. 

In  commenting  on  this  trade  the  Woman's  Journal 
offers  this  silly  bub  argument  that  “women  as  well  as 
men,  are  affiliated  with  the  respective  parties  by 
convictions  on  other  questions  of  public  importance. 
Woman-Suffrage  is  not  the  sole  question  and  cannot 
be  made  such.  Thousands  of  Democrats  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  Republicans  are  in  sympathy  with 
Woman-Suffrage.  It  would  be  folly  to  alienate 
them.” 

Kate  Field’s  Washington  smoothes  out  the  creases 
in  this  alliance,  with  the  flatiron  of  an  opinion  that 
these  promisers  swallowed  free  coinage  of  silver,  non- 


70 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


interest-paying  bonds,  etc.,  for  the  sake  of  getting 
what  should  have  been  obtained  without  any  bargain 
whatever.  They  entered  that  convention  as  leaders 
of  a non-political  cause,  and  came  out  of  it  com- 
mitted to  a third  party,  in  which  a majority  of  Ameri- 
cans have  no  faith. 

The  Boston  Journal  touches  the  subject  with  a 
drop  of  sulphuric  acid  in  saying: 

“Perhaps  it  would  seem  extreme  to  describe  such 
bartering  of  votes  as  immoral,  but  at  least  it  throws 
some  light  on  the  character  of  the  reformator}'  in- 
fluences which  would  become  operative  in  our  politics 
with  the  entrance  of  women.” 

But  this  disease  may  not  spread.  Woman  is  likely 
to  be  a queen  for  this  generation,  though  mighty 
near  an  exile.  Not  quite  yet  is  she  a victim  of  the 
insanity  of  political  power;  and  yet  there  is  so  much 
in  the  old  couplet. 

When  a woman  will,  she  will,  depend  on’t; 

But  when  she  won’t,  she  won’t, and  there’s  an  end  on't, 

that  one  must  needs  wait  until  she  performs  that 
momentous  act  of  “making  up  her  mind.” 

Outside  of  this  debasing  struggle  for  place  and 
power,  which  time  and  politicians  will  settle  for 
them,  we  recapitulate  these  salient  points  in  her  eco- 
nomic position — that  woman  has  silently  and  insidi- 
ously usurped  many  a man’s  bread-winning  occupa- 
tions, narrowed  his  line  of  labor,  reduced  his  possibil- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


71 


ities  of  production  and  competition,  wantonly  robbed 
him  of  the  natural  rights  of  his  sex  as  the  head  and 
supporter  of  a family,  and  by  all  these  infringements 
of  established  rights  weakened  the  state  by  impairing 
the  working  value  of  an  essential  component.  If  there 
were  a scarcity  of  laborers  in  the  country  no  ob- 
jection could  reasonably  be  held  against  this  antago- 
nism of  sexes  in  the  various  industries;  but  as  our 
population  affords  a superabundance  of  man-labor 
for  all  work,  light  or  severe,  and  as  woman  is  taking 
away  such  work  from  men  who  have  or  will  have 
families  to  support,  we  declare  that  the  women  of 
this  country  are,  next  to  the  politicians,  the  worst 
enemies,  thoughtlessly  perhaps,  of  the  male  workers; 
and  that  they  are  among  the  slave  makers  of  the 
United  States. 

We  hold  that  it  is  criminally  wrong  for  woman  to 
usurp,  on  the  plea  of  sex,  those  sources  of  livelihood 
and  domestic  existence  which  are  man’s  by  right  of 
birth,  by  usage  for  thousands  of  years,  by  sex  adap- 
tation and  by  the  understood  law  of  the  State  that 
men  shall  be  considered  as  the  heads,  protectors  and 
supporters  of  families.  In  contemplating  the  future 
for  individuals  and  communities,  we  are  forced  to 
consider  the  enervating  results  of  creating  in  young 
women  an  insatiable  taste  for  display;  an  almost 
shameless  craving  for  notoriety;  a demoralizing  ten- 
dency to  an  extravagance  that  may  be  difficult  for  a 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


n 

husband  to  gratify;  a dislike  for  any  of  the  restraints 
necessary  for  a happy  domesticity  and  the  judicious 
conduct  of  a family;  a tireless  scheming  to  marry 
above  her  station  in  life;  a flippancy  in  action;  a fool- 
ishness in  ambition;  and,  in  all,  a license  in  words 
and  manners  not  at  all  in  consonance  with  the  ex- 
amples of  those  ardent,  devoted  mothers  who  blessed 
the  homes  of  olden  times  and  gave  as  legacies  to  the 
world  the  wisest  and  best  of  men  as  models  of  what 
good  women  can  do  if  they  will.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  fill  the  veins  of  the  coming  population  of  this 
republic  witbthe  composite  blood  of  scores  of  foreign 
nations — blood  tainted  with  the  corruption  incident  to 
centuries  of  misrule  and  degradation;  transmit  to  new 
generations,  through  the  bisexual  woman  of  to-day, 
and  the  coming  morrows,  the  idiosyncrasies  of  her  sex 
and  her  times,  combined  with  those  of  men  embitter- 
ed by  a sullen  hatred  of  the  social  economy  which 
they  are  unconsciously  aiding  to  make  detestable, 
and  what  sort  of  people  will  possess  the  country  a 
hundred  years  hence?  We  shall  have  an  anarchy 
that  will  be  the  real  and  not  the  ideal  embodi- 
ment of  all  that  is  horrible,  repugnant  and  atrocious 
in  human  nature.  We  shall  then  have,  not  the 
preparations  for  the  crime,  as  now,  but  the  crime 
itself. 


IX. 


The  cause  of  the  origin  of  the  trade  union  was  the 
purpose  of  self-protection.  The  motives  were  purely 
philanthropic.  As  such  no  man  could  have  good 
reasons  for  opposing  it.  Aggregation  of  power  could 
accomplish  reforms  impossible  to  the  individual; 
but  in  becoming  members  of  such  combinations  men 
did  not,  except  in  a legislative  way,  abandon  their 
personal  rights.  Is  such  the  case  to-day  ? Are  not 
unions  aggressive  rather  than  conservative  ? Have 
not  the  leaders  arrogated  to  themselves  a sort  of  pro- 
prietary right  in  the  individual.  This  will  probably 
be  denied,  on  the  ground  that  the  majority  rules. 
But  how  is  it  with  the  large  minority?  Have  they 
no  rights  left  when  the  question  is  a sacrifice  of  the 
means  of  living?  Must  they  become  participants  in 
unlawful  procedures  because  a majority  decrees  oppo- 
sition to  law?  Are  not  such  majorities  obtained,  in 
general,  through  the  conspiracies  of  ambitious  lead- 
ers,^ rather  than  by  a spontaneous  uprising  of  the 
members?  We  do  not  believe  that  strikes  are  in  gen- 
eral the  result  of  calm,  dispassionate  consideration  by 
the  members  of  a federation  of  labor  legislators. 

73 


74 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


Strikes,  as  now  conducted,  are,  in  principle,  acts  of 
war,  and,  as  such,  entitled  to  that  profound  consider- 
ation always  given  to  such  grave  questions.  Some 
unions  will  not  strike  except  as  a last  resort  in  secur- 
ing the  righting  of  a wrong  for  which  courts  of  equity 
afford  no  redress;  other  unions  fight  at  the  snap  of 
a walking  delegate’s  thumb  and  finger,  and  the  mem- 
bers abandon  their  work  without  knowing  the  cause. 
In  such  cases  who  is  the  tyrant  and  who  is  the  slave? 

Workmen  talk  glibly  about  strikes  and  the  good 
they  accomplish.  On  questions  of  vital  principles  of 
manhood  they  may  and  do  secure  permanent  results. 
Ordinarily  they  are  failures.  In  England  labor  is 
better  organized  than  in  this  country,  and  it  is  or- 
ganized for  self-protection  and  not  for  the  political 
advancement  of  its  leaders.  Yet  the  English  work- 
man has  found  out  that  strikes  are  failures.  Ac- 
cording do  a communication  in  the  Westminster 
Gazette,  there  were  in  Great  Britain,  in  1892,  692 
strikes  and  eight  lockouts,  affecting  371.799  persons. 
Of  the  692  strikes  345  were  settled  either  by  mutual 
conciliation  or  by  mediation,  1 1 5 by  submission  of 
work-people,  seventy-nine  by  the  hands  being  re- 
placed, thirty-three  by  conciliation  and  submission, 
thirteen  by  conciliation  and  hands  being  replaced, 
twenty-two  by  submission  and  hands  being  replaced, 
and  sixteen  by  arbitration. 

The  cost  of  these  struggles  to  both  employers  and 


- AMERICAN  SLAVES 


75 


employees  was  enormous.  The  amount  of  wages  not 
paid  during  the  period  of  stoppage  is  variously  esti- 
mated at  from  ^^485,000  to  £^9S,ooo  per  week.  The 
capital  laid  idle  in  511  establishments  making  returns 
was  very  nearly  1 9, 000, 000,  The  cost  of  restart- 
ing works  in  the  case  of  forty-five  firms  was  £16^^- 
000,  and  i^S5,ooo  was  spent  by  employers  in  resist- 
ing strikes.  In  235  strikes  the  contributions  from 
trades  unions  to  men  on  strike  reached  ;^i63,ooo, 
this,  of  course,  being  only  a fraction  of  the  total 
sum  expended  in  this  way.  In  conclusion  the  statis- 
tician who  supplied  these  says  that  the  general  bal- 
ance of  results  was  against  the  workmen,  as  may  al- 
ways be  anticipated  during  a period  of  declining  trade. 
But  there  is,  it  seems,  a growing  opinion,  expressed 
year  by  year,  both  among  employers  and  workmen, 
in  favor  of  various  forms  of  arbitration  and  concili- 
ation. 

For  the  cost  of  the  hundreds  of  silly  strikes  in 
this  country,  those  spasmodic  attacks  of  economic 
colic  which  are  aggravated  by  an  insane  idea  of  giv- 
ing capital  a blow  in  the  face, no  approximate  figures 
can  be  given,  and  the  statistics  for  such  a stupen- 
dous outbreak  as  the  railway  strike  of  1894  can  not 
be  obtained  until  after  an  adjustment  of  all  the  dam- 
ages to  the  railroads,  and  even  then  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  various  unions  would  care  to  state  the 
cost  to  their  members. 


AMERICANSLAVES 


% 

The  Bradstreet  agency,  which  by  reason  of  its 
agency  resources  throughout  the  country,  is  well 
equipped  with  commercial  information  on  the  sub- 
ject, estimates  the  losses  by  the  railway  strike  of  1894, 
which  centered  in  Chicago,  as  follows: 


United  States  Government $ 1,000,000 

Loss  in  earnings  of  railroads,  Chicago 3,000,000 

Loss  earnings,  other  railroads 2,500,000 

Loss,  destruction  railway  property 2,500,000 

Loss,  railway  employees’  wages 20,000,000 

Loss  in  exports 2,000,000 

Loss  on  fruit  crops 2,500,000 

Loss  to  manufacturing  companies 7,500,000 

Loss  to  employees 35,000,000 

Loss  to  merchants  on  quick  goods 5,000,000 


Total $81, 000, 000 


There  were  other  strikes,  notably  those  of  the 
coal  miners,  which  will  increase  the  total  cost  of  this 
sort  of  mischief  to  over  $100,000,000.  What  the 
cost  has  been  to  trade  unions,  as  unions,  and  to  their 
individual  members,  as  members,  will  probably  never 
be  known.  The  only  advantage  gained  is  the  ap- 
pointment of  a congressional  investigating  commit- 
tee to  officially  formulate  public  opinion  for  presen- 
tation to  a Congress  that  will  show  itself  absolutely 
indifferent  to  the  necessities  of  all  concerned.  Con- 
gress is  by  no  means  a labor  union,  and  has  no  par- 
ticular interest  in  the  strifes  of  organized  industries; 
its  authorization  of  the  committee  referred  to  was 
only  a spasmodic  exhibit  of  virtue,  or,  to  use  a more 
pertinent  simile,  it  was  gooseberry  jam  for  working- 
men’s fingers. 


/IMERICAN  SLAVES 


77 


Regardless  of  the  barren  results  of  this  gigantic 
strike,  labor  is  still  defiant.  Its  wounds  are  not  healed. 
Its  wrongs  have  not  been  righted,  nor  will  they  ever 
be  righted  by  any  such  tactics  as  have  been  followed 
thus  far  in  its  campaigns.  Why  labor  should  be  all 
the  time  trying  by  acts  and  speeches  to  ruin  capital, 
is  the  supreme  paradox  of  this  century.  It  reminds 
one  of  the  old  lady  who  killed  the  goose  that  laid  the 
eggs  of  gold.  Any  sane  person  will  agree  that  capi- 
tal without  labor  or  labor  without  capital  would  ac- 
complish nothing.  What  foolishness,  then,  to  cherish 
the  idea  that  capital  is  trying  to  destroy  labor  and 
that  labor  should  retaliate  by  legitimate  and  illegiti- 
mate means  in  efforts  to  wipe  out  capita}.  As  a mat- 
ter of  fact,  every  man  is  a capitalist  when  he  makes 
his  income  exceed  his  outgo.  The  capitalists  of 
France  are  its  peasantry,  who  loan  it  money  in  hours 
of  need  and  peril.  Many  of  the  capitalists  of  Amer- 
ica are  the  descendants  of  peripatetic  peddlers,  saga- 
cious wood  sawers,  economical  truck  gardeners,  frugal 
teamsters,  and  of  avaricious  workmen  who  saved 
when  comrades  wasted  and  played  the  part  of  the 
plethoric  ant  to  the  emaciated  grasshopper.  The 
wealth-makers  of  to-day  are  men,  generally,  who 
commenced  with  nothing  but  a capital  of  brain, 
muscles,  ambition  and  indomitable  energy.  If  work- 
men are  to  try  and  down  such  people,  to  extirpate 
these  men  and  their  labor-giving  enterprises,  then 


78 


AMERIC/iN  SLAVES 


they  are  plotting  for  universal  ruin.  The  Chicago 
Tribune  presents  the  matter  in  this  way: 

“The  fact  is  that  the  contestants  on  both  sides  are 
men,  and  the  money  or  its  equivalent  credit,  which 
constitutes  capital,  is  only  a means  to  an  end.  Capi- 
tal is  actively  used  by  enterprise  to  employ  labor. 
The  antagonism,  when  it  exists,  is  between  Enter- 
prise and  Labor,  between  brain  ability  and  muscular 
effort,  the  capital  used  being  introduced  for  the  pur- 
pose of  rendering  the  latter  effective,  for  without  it 
labor  cannot  be  set  at  work.” 

And  again  it  says:  ‘‘It  must  be  remembered  that 
without  the  man  of  brains  and  nerve  the  capital 
would  not  be  employed,  and  no  workman  would  be 
hired,  and  no  wages  paid,  and  the  industry  would  not 
be  carried  on. 

“The  capital  thus  put  in  use  is  the  profit  and  sav- 
ing of  past  labor  that  has  been  conducted  by  Enter- 
prise. It  is  owned  by  somebody  who  is  willing  to 
take  rent  for  its  use  without  himself  actively  super- 
vising the  process  or  taking  part  in  the  industrial 
labor.  If  a man  uses  his  own  money,  land,  build- 
ings, raw  material  or  machinery  in  productive  proc- 
ess it  is  part  of  his  Enterprise.  If  he  borrows  from 
another  the  use  of  part  or  all  of  these  he  bargains 
for  the  use  of  that  capital,  for  which  he  agrees  to 
pay  rent  or  interest,  expecting  to  do  so  out  of  the 
profits  of  the  business.  He  does  not  hire  the  capi- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


79 


talist,  but  hires  the  property  or  money  of  the  capi- 
talist. 

“Hence  in  a strike, lockout,  boycott, or  other  indus- 
trial disturbance  the  strife  or  struggle  is  not  be- 
tween ‘capital  and  labor.’  The  capitalist  is  not  lift- 
ing a finger  unless  as  he  sometimes  may  occupy  the 
position  of  a stock-holder,  threatened  with  loss  of 
some  of  his  capital.  The  contest  is  left  to  the  men  of 
enterprise  and  the  men  whom  they  have  hired  at 
commercial  wages  to  assist  in  certain  processes  of 
reproduction  or  transportation.  Neither  the  banker 
who  handles  enterprise  money  nor  the  owner  of  the 
deposits  which  are  loaned  out  by  the  banker,  goes  to 
work  in  the  shops,  bosses  the  men,  or  attends  to 
marketing  the  product.  The  real  combat  is,  there- 
fore, between  the  men  with  brains,  who  borrow  the 
capital,  and  the  men  with  muscle  who  are  hired  to 
work  up  the  raw  materials  by  the  aid  of  machinery 
into  more  valuable  forms. 

“If  the  workers  cripple  or  break  down  the  enterpris- 
ing man  who  employs  them  by  the  aid  of  borrowed 
capital,  in  what  way  do  they  benefit  themselves  by 
killing  his  business.?  If  the  enterprising  man  whose 
brains  have  directed  their  efforts  becomes  discour- 
aged, even  without  being  badly  crippled,  he  turns 
over  the  capital  on  hand  to  the  capitalist  from  whom 
he  hired  it,  discharges  the  men  who  have  struck 
against  him,  and  steps  back  into  inactivity.  If  he 


80 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


has  lost  a part  of  the  capital  before  giving  up  to  the 
strikers,  he  hands  over  the  remainder  to  those  to 
whom  it  belongs,  the  machinery,  buildings,  and  land 
become  unproductive,  the  concern  is  closed  up,  and 
the  500  or  1,000  men  who  had  been  getting  wages 
from  the  man  with  enterprising  brains  are  turned 
adrift,  having  knocked  themselves  out  of  their  jobs 
by  their  folly.” 

From  such  a presentation  of  the  attitude  of  enter- 
prise, not  capital,  and  labor,  one  would  reasonably 
infer  that  by  a strike  as  against  capital  the  workman 
was  simply  trying  to  kick  off  his  own  head.  But  the 
English  anarchist,  Mr.  Charles  Wilfred  Mowbray, 
who  has  come  to  this  country  to  sprinkle  our  insti- 
tutions with  the  gasoline  of  his  ideas  and  then  set 
fire  to  the  results,  in  a speech  in  New  York  city  just 
after  his  arrival  changed  the  war-cry  just  a little, 
declaring, among  other  things:  “It  has  been  said  that 
we  want  to  do  away  with  capital.  That’s  ridiculous, 
false.  Capital  is  the  result  of  labor.  It  does  not 
grow  in  a garden;  it  is  not  rained  from  heaven  as  it 
is  said  was  the  manna  to  the  children  of  Israel. 
What  we  do  want  is  not  to  do  away  with  capital, 

but  to  do  away  with  the  capitalist. 
******* 

“I  mean  by  doing  away  with  the  capitalist, putting 
them  to  the  severest  punishment  they  could  endure, 
making  them  work  for  an  honest  living.  Labor 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


81 


unions  of  to-day  are  gradually  being  forced  into  the 
ranks  of  Anarchist  Communists,  A strike  cannot 
any  more  be  used  to  better  the  condition  of  the  work- 
men. Consequently  while  organizing  they  are  study- 
ing the  doctrine  that  the  Socialists,  the  Communists, 
and  the  Anarchists  lay  before  them.  It  will  be  im- 
possible for  those  men  not  to  fight,  not  to  take  a 
rifle,  a knife,  or  a bomb,  to  revolutionize  society  by 
folding  their  arms.” 

It  is  well  to  know  what  the  anarchists  are  hoping, 
working,  but  not  praying  for,  prayer  being,  presum- 
ably, not  of  their  arsenal  of  weapons.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  fair  to  assert  this,  because  we  are  told  by  the 
Associated  Press  that  a prominent  minister  of  the  gos- 
pel, of  Denver,  Col,,  delivered  an  address  before  a 
large  audience  of  railway  men  in  which  he  said: 
“Jesus  Christ  was  not  only  an  Anarchist,  but  was 
killed  by  the  representatives  of  the  law,  the  church, 
and  state  for  daring  to  practice  humanity,  Jesus 
Christ  was  an  Anarchist  and  a Socialist,  but  I never 
read  of  his  being  a Deputy  Sheriff,” 

This  sentiment  being  received  with  “cheers,”  the 
reverend  gentleman  ought  to  have  urged  his  hearers 
to  enlist  with  the  devil,  because  his  Satanic  majesty 
had  boycotted  the  Creator.  But  he  omitted  that 
natural  sequence  to  his  blasphemy,  and  concluded 
his  oration  by  remarking: 

“I  also  say  that  a man  who  does  not  belong  to  a 


83 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


union  and  stands  ready  to  take  another  man’s  place 
at  less  wages  is  an  enemy,  a spy,  and  an  obstructer, 
and  ought  in  some  peaceable  way  to  be  removed,” 

Forgetting  that  “peaceable  removals”  have  cost 
many  human  lives. 

Have  the  laborers  of  the  country  forgotten  the 
words  of  wisdom  embodied  in  President  Lincoln’s 
message  to  Congress  in  December,  i86i,  and  repeat- 
ed by  him  to  a committee  of  workmen  who  had  called 
upon  him?  His  message  contained  many  great 
things,  but  among  them  were  ideas  more  pertinent 
now  than  then.  He  said; 

“Labor  is  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  capital. 
Capital  is  only  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have 
existed  if  labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the 
superior  of  capital  and  deserves  much  the  higher  con- 
sideration. Capital  has  its  rights  which  are  as  worthy 
of  protection  as  any  other  rights.  Nor  is  it  denied 
that  there  is  and  probably  always  will  be  a relation 
between  capital  and  labor  producing  mutual  benefits. 
The  error  is  in  assuming  that  the  whole  labor  of  a 
community  exists  within  that  relation.  A few  men 
own  capital  and  that  few  avoid  labor  themselves,  and 
with  their  capital  hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor  for 
them.  A large  majority  belong  to  neither  class; 
neither  work  for  others  nor  have  others  working  for 
them.  In  the  most  of  the  Southern  States  a majority 
of  the  whole  people,  of  all  colors,  are  neither  slaves 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


83 


nor  masters;  while  in  the  Northern  a large  majority 
are  neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men  with  their  families 
— wives,  sons,  and  daughters — work  for  themselves 
on  their  farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in  their  shops, 
taking  the  whole  product  to  themselves,  and  asking 
no  favors  of  capital  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired 
laborers  or  slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not  forgotten 
that  a considerable  number  of  persons  mingle  their 
own  labor  with  capital;  that  is,  they  labor  with  their 
own  hands  and  also  buy  or  hire  others  to  labor  for 
them;  but  this  is  only  a mixed  and  not  a distinct 
class.  No  principle  stated  is  disturbed  by  the  ex- 
istence of  this  mixed  class. 

“Again,  as  has  already  been  said,  there  is  not  of 
necessity  any  such  thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer  being 
fixed  to  that  condition  for  life.  Many  independent 
men  everywhere  in  these  States  a few  years  back 
in  their  lives  were  hired  laborers.  The  prudent  pen- 
niless beginner  in  the  world  labors  for  wages  a while, 
saves  a surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land  for 
himself,  then  labors  on  his  own  account  another 
while,  and  at  length  hires  another  new  beginner  to 
help  him.  This  is  the  just  and  generous  and  pros- 
perous system  which  opens  the  way  to  all — gives  hope 
to  all,  and  consequent  energy  and  progress,  and  im- 
provement of  condition  to  all.  No  men  living  are 
more  worthy  to  be  trusted  than  those  who  toil  up 
from  poverty — none  less  inclined  to  touch  or  take 


84 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


aught  which  they  have  not  honestly  earned.  Let 
them  beware  of  surrendering  a political  power  they 
already  possess,  and  which,  if  surrendered,  will 
surely  be  used  to  close  the  door  of  advancement 
against  such  as  they,  and  to  fix  new  disabilities  and 
burdens  upon  them  till  all  of  liberty  shall  be  lost.” 

To  the  committee  he  added  that:  “The  strongest 
bond  of  human  sympathy,  outside  of  the  family  rela- 
tion, should  be  one  uniting  all  working  people  of  all  na- 
tions, and  tongues  and  kindreds.  Nor  should  this  lead 
to  a war  upon  property  or  the  owners  of  property. 
Property  is  the  fruit  of  labor;  property  is  desirable;  is 
a positive  good  in  the  world.  That  some  should  be 
rich  shows  that  others  may  become  rich,  and  hence 
is  just  encouragement  to  industry  and  enterprise. 
Let  not  him  who  is  houseless  pull  down  the  house 
of  another,  but  let  him  labor  diligently  and  build  one 
for  himself,  thus  by  example  assuring  that  his  own 
shall  be  safe  from  violence  when  built.” 

Have  men,  labor,  capital,  the  enterprise  which 
uses  it,  changed  greatly  within  thirty-three  years.? 
Is  not  Mr.  Lincoln’s  sermon  as  timely  and  as  true 
now  as  then.? 

But  if  the  pernicious  agitators  who  help  to  create 
and  maintain  the  present  system  of  American  slavery 
are  determined  to  hold  capitalists  and  not  monopo- 
lists to  an  accountability  for  labor  servitude,  let  them 
read  what  Mr.  Joseph  Gruenhut,  a noted  student  of 


AMERICAN  slaved 


85 


industrial  problems,  has  to  say  about  capital  and 
labor:  ‘‘Capitalists, under  our  present  conditions, ap- 
propriate the  greater  proportion  of  the  productive 
wealth  of  the  business  community,  and  are  secured 
by  law  and  public  sentiment  in  their  means  and  op- 
portunities of  further  acquisition.  Capital  is  needed 
for  the  employment  and  compensation  of  the  workers; 
its  increase  under  control  of  able  managers  is  therefore 
a gain  to  the  whole  people.  Capitalists  lead  indus- 
trial progress  at  their  own  individual  risk,  losing  by 
obsolete  machinery,  and  depreciated  stock,  while 
supporting  the  working  people  during  the  industrial 
transformation.  Consolidated  capital  is  an  inter- 
national leveler,and  overcomes  all  sorts  of  prejudices 
which  in  former  times  obstructed  the  course  of  trade. 
Industrial  pioneers  in  the  extension  of  trade  and  la- 
bor, earn  the  gratitude  of  mankind,  while  they  hardly 
ever  gain  a profit  from  the  start  of  a new  industrial 
departure.  The  capitalist  employer  is  the  ally  of  the 
workers;  by  his  management  inventions  are  turned 
to  the  best  account,  industry  is  made  more  produc- 
tive, and  the  best  markets  are  reached. 

“Capitalists,  on  the  whole,  are  cheapening  goods 
and  increasing  the  purchasing  powers  of  wages,  and 
thus  improving  the  common  average  standard  of  liv- 
ing. They  are  cooperating  in  such  numbers  and 
with  such  massed  financial  strength  as  to  enable 
them  to  undertake  vast  international  enterprises  to 


86  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

equalize  the  bounties  of  civilization  among  all  people. 
Labor  is  dependent  for  its  efficiency  on  capital  employ- 
ed in  production,  and  earns  more  compensation  with 
increased  investments  of  capital  in  business  of  all 
sorts.  The  wage-workers  benefit  not  only  by  any 
cause  which  renders  their  own  labor  more  efficient  in 
producing  commodities,  but  by  whatever  makes  that 
labor  more  efficient  which  produces  any  and  all 
necessary  articles  for  use  and  consumption. 

“The  demand  for  any  particular  kind  of  labor  de- 
pends (i)  on  its  value  in  use,  (2)  on  the  purchaser’s 
power  to  pay  for  it.  New  articles  are  continually 
brought  to  market  and  introduced  for  consumption; 
the  diversity  of  employment  continually  increases. 
A rising  standard  of  living  is  the  result  of  improved 
methods  of  production  and  fair  system  of  exchanges. 
Sound  public  policy  requires  that  no  trade  should  be 
underpaid  or  overpaid,  and  that  the  mere  necessaries 
of  life  should  not  be  raised  in  price  by  indirect  tax- 
ation. Social  progress  tends  to  fairly  distribute  labor 
and  leisure  and  the  means  of  living  among  an  ever- 
increasing  proportion  of  the  whole  people.  Any 
destructive,  obstructive,  or  extortionate  and  plunder- 
ing practices  in  business  affairs  should  be  remediable 
by  legal  regulations,  and  reliable  statistics  on  trade 
and  labor  should  be  gathered  for  public  information.” 

Enough  has  been  written  to  show  that  as  between 
plain  capital,  as  used  in  business,  and  plain  labor  as 


AMERICA}^  SLAVES 


87 


employed  by  capital,  there  should  be  no  hostility, 
because  they  are  inter-dependent.  Any  individual 
oppression  is  not  a cause  for  general  antagonism. 
Wealth  consolidated  in  a monopoly,  in  a robber- 
syndicate,  in  a trust  that  is  against  public  policy,  in 
any  combination  that  takes  everything  and  gives 
nothing — these  are  the  enemies  that  workmen  should 
attack  and  eradicate.  They  are  the  enemies  of  hu- 
man comfort,  peace  and  happiness.  The  slave  of 
unions  must  emancipate  himself  not  only  from  his 
slavery  to  unwisely  given  bonds  and  promises,  but 
from  the  rule  of  unwise  leaders.^  He  must  change  his 
ideas  and  his  plan  of  action  if  he  would  be  free.  As 
it  is,  with  every  strike  he  adds  a link  to  his  chains, 
and  with  every  boycott  he  commits  a crime  against 
himself  and  against  the  society  in  which  he  lives  and 
under  whose  laws  he  finds  protection.  And  right 
here  it  is  well  to  disabuse  many  vociferous  orators, 
and  even  a large  number  of  workmen,  of  the  opinion 
that,  because  a man  has  joined  a trade  union,  and 
gets  wages,  he  thereby  acquires  an  exclusive  franchise 
to  the  title  of  “workman.”  The  claim  is  an  absurd 
one.  It  is  as  the  Louisville  Courier  Journal  — 
“Every  man  who  works  for  a living  is  a workingman. 
Yet  there  are  undoubtedly  degrees  among  working- 
men. There  is  the  workingman  who  by  his  capacity 
and  application  has  lifted  himself  out  of  weekly  wages 
into  an  annual  salary.  There  is  the  workingman 


8B 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


who  hopes  to  do  this  and  is  striving  to  do  it.  Then 
there  is  the  man  who  neither  hopes  nor  cares  to  do 
it,  but  who  glories  in  being  a poor  devil,  preferring 
to  drag  down  others  than  to  try  to  raise  himself.’’ 

The  right  of  way  for  individual  lives  is  not  survey- 
ed and  charted  by  political  and  labor  agitators,  but 
by  the  alleged  representatives  of  the  people.  These 
representatives  are  not  patriots  except  by  implica- 
tion. The  patriot  has  become  a rare  if  not  an  ex- 
tinct bird.  In  peace  he  is  an  incident,  as  the  hero 
is  an  accident,  of  the  time.  Self  is  the  adjusting 
weight  of  the  public  as  well  as  the  private  acts  of 
individuals.  Patriotism  and  three-dollars-a-day 
wages  are  in  harmony,  just  as  despair  and  ten  dol- 
lars a month  in  the  army  are  compatible.  Between 
law  makers  and  law  breakers  the  only  difference  is 
the  law.  The  good  citizen  takes  his  medicine,  no 
matter  what  the  label  says,  because  it  is  prescribed 
for  him;  but  he  changes  doctors  as  soon  as  he  can  if 
the  medicine  harms  him.  If  laws  are  made  for 
monopolists  and  corporations  the  workman  can 
change  matters  in  a legitimate  way  by  acting  for  him- 
self and  by  himself,  instead  of  by  a proxy  of  dubious 
reputation.  We  believe  that  labor  unions  are  for 
enforcing  justice,  and  not  for  inflicting  injustice. 
Strikes  right  no  wrongs,  but  wrong  many  rights. 
Look  at  the  question  in  the  light  thrown  upon  it  by 
the  Louisville  Courier  Journal: 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


89 


“Fifty  millions  of  Americans  are  neither  rich  nor 
poor.  Fifty  millions  work  to  earn  their  bread,  some 
for  high  wages  and  some  for  low  wages,  some  in  one 
way  and  some  in  another  way,  but  all  do  actually 
work  for  a living.  Are  these  plain,  honest  people, 
who  go  hand  in  hand  through  life  as  neighbors  and 
friends,  whose  children  attend  the  same  schools,  whose 
families  pray  together  and  play  together,  who  salute 
the  same  flag  and  serve  the  same  God,  are  they  to 
be  rent  asunder,  instructed  in  divergent  interests, 
and  taught  to  hate  one  another  at  the  bidding  of 
some  chance  leader  or  upstart  agitator  seeking  to  ex- 
ploit himself.?” 

Bad  leadership  is  infinitely  worse  than  no  leader- 
ship, in  peace  as  in  war.  The  Evening  Post,  of  New 
York  City,  puts  a finger  on  a rot  spot  when  it  asserts 

that — “Laboring  men  are  proving  the  economists  to 
be  correct  in  magnifying  the  importance  of  the  man- 
ager in  all  large  enterprises.  A man  who  can  win 
success  for  a corporation  is  worthy  of  a larger  share 
in  the  common  rewards.  It  is  rare  to  find  among 
the  trades-union  leaders  that  executive  ability  which 
takes  particular  note  of  general  trade  conditions  as 
well  as  of  local  requirements.  The  conspicuous  lack 
in  the  labor  combinations  from  a business  point  of 
view  is  good  leadership.  Workingmen  could  better 
afford  to  pay  some  real  leader — ’Who  need  not  be  a 
laboring  man — a large  salary  than  go  on  a strike  for 


DO 


yiMERICAN  SLAVES 


six  weeks  and  face  starvation  only  to  find  defeat  in- 
evitable at  the  end.” 

And  the  Springfield  (Mass.)  Republican  asks;  “If 
we  admit  that  the  strike  is  doomed  to  annihilation, 
as  it  seems  to  be,  are  we  prepared  to  grant  to  the 
wage-earners  something  in  its  place.?  If  we  are  op- 
timistic, we  must  be  content  with  the  faith  that  the 
forces  now  working  so  mysteriously  will  lead  to  a 
higher  industrial  state  where  there  will  be  no  strikes.” 

Of  strikes  and  their  effects  Archbishop  Ireland  of 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  prel- 
ates of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  in  commenting 
on  labor  troubles, said  that — “The  fatal  mistake  which 
has  been  made  in  connection  with  this  strike  is  that 
property  has  been  destroyed,  the  liberty  of  citizens 
interfered  with,  human  lives  endangered,  social  order 
menaced,  and  the  institutions  and  freedom  of  the 
country  put  in  most  serious  jeopardy.  The  mo- 
ment such  things  happen,  all  possible  questions  as  to 
the  rights  and  grievances  of  labor  must  be  dropped 
out  of  sight  and  all  efforts  of  law-abiding  citizens  and 
of  public  officials  made  to  serve  in  maintaining  pub- 
lic order  and  guarding  at  all  costs  the  public  weal. 
Labor  must  learn  that,  however  sacred  its  rights  be, 
there  is  something  above  them  and  absolutely  su- 
preme— social  order  and  the  laws  of  public  justice. 
There  is  no  civil  crime  as  hideous  and  as  pregnant 
of  evil  results  as  resistance  to  law  and  the  constitu- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


91 


tional  authorities  of  the  country.  This  resistance  is 
revolution;  it  begets  chaos;  it  is  anajchy;  it  disrupts 
the  whole  social  fabric  which  insures  life  and  safety  to 
the  poor  as  well  as  to  the  rich,  to  the  employee  as 
well  as  to  the  employer. 

“There  can  be  no  hesitation  to  bring  in  the  help 
of  the  repressive  powers  of  society  when  property  is 
menaced.  Only  savages,  or  men  who  for  the  time 
being  are  turned  into  savages,  will  burn  or  destroy 
property,  whether  it  be  the  factory  of  the  rich  man 
or  the  poor  man’s  cottage,  a railroad  car  or  a national 
building.  More  criminal  and  more  inexcusable  yet 
is  the  act  of  murdering  human  beings  or  of  endan- 
gering their  lives.  Labor,  too,  must  learn  the  les- 
son that  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  is  to  be  respected. 
One  man  has  the  right  to  cease  from  work,  but  he 
has  no  right  to  drive  another  man  from  work.  He 
who  respects  not  the  liberty  of  others  shows  himself 
unworthy  of  his  own  liberty  and  incapable  of  citizen- 
ship in  a free  country.  Never  can  riots  and  mob  rule 
and  lawless  depredation  be  tolerated.  The  country 
that  permits  them  signs  its  death  warrant.” 

And  in  the  same  interview  he  added;  “As  to 
strikes,  I repeat  the  words  of  a labor  leader,  T.  V. 
Powderly,  ‘they  are  nearly  always  failures,  and  should 
scarcely  ever  be  resorted  to,  even  when  most  securely 
•guarded  from  wrong  doing.’  The  workman,  even 
when  he  apparently  gains  his  purpose,  finds  on  com- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


putation  that  he  has  suffered  severe  financial  losses, 
and  has  weakened  his  chances  for  future  employ- 
ment. Besides,  strikes  affect  the  great  public  of 
America  as  well  as  the  employer,  and  workmen  should 
consider  the  rights  of  this  public,  whose  moral  sup- 
port, moreover,  the  cause  of  labor  sorely  needs. 

‘‘For  my  own  part,  I believe  the  large  number  of 
men  who  join  strikes  are  more  to  be  pitied  than 
blamed.  They  are  led  on  by  irresponsible  and  tyr- 
annous chiefs.  Labor  unions  have  great  value,  but 
one  marked  evil  in  them  is  that  they  put  the  liber- 
ties of  tens  of  thousands  in  the  keeping  of  one  man, 
or  of  a few  who  become  their  absolute  masters,  their 
despotic  czars.” 

As  for  that  most  insane  of  crazy  acts,  the  “sym- 
pathetic strike,”  resorted  to  by  leaders  more  to  show 
their  power  than  to  express  or  win  sympathy, 
Governor  Jones,  of  Alabama,  in  his  official  procla- 
mation declared  that — “Railways  are  but  public  high- 
ways, and  those  who  own  and  those  who  operate  them 
are  trustees  to  keep  them  open  for  the  public  good. 
They  have  become  the  great  arteries  of  our  prosper- 
ity, are  essential  to  our  very  existence,  and  enter 
into  the  daily  life  of  the  citizen  and  influence  his  wel- 
fare and  destiny  in  innumerable  ways.  Any  class  of 
men  who  can  sit  astride  of  these  great  highways  and 
arbitrarily  determine  when  they  shall  be  closed  to 
the  public  becomes  the  master  of  the  citizen,  and 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


93 


the  citizen  in  turn  becomes  their  slave.  They  can 
practically  dictate  what  he  shall  eat  and  what  he 
shall  wear,  when  he  shall  not  labor,  and  the  reward 
when  it  is  permitted  him  to  work,  and  where  he  may 
go,  and  hold  his  liberties  in  a vise.  No  brave  or  free 
people  have  ever  permitted  any  class  to  exercise  such 
despotism  over  themselves,  their  pursuits,  and  their 
prosperity,  and  it  is  trifling  with  the  peace  and  happi- 
ness of  the  people  for  any  set  of  men  to  attempt  it.’’ 

Ex-Governor  Horace  Boies,  of  Iowa,  spoke  out 
loudVhen  he  asserted  that — “The  sympathetic  strike 
must  go  or  the  unions  that  engage  in  it  will  be  des- 
troyed, and  with  it  must  go  forever  the  scenes  of  riot 
and  carnage  that  have  characterized  so  many  recent 
strikes,  or  the  organizations  responsible  for  them 
will  be  ground  into  dust  under  the  iron  heel  of  an 
awakened  public  sentiment  that  will  never  consent  to 
see  the  laws  that  are  absolutely  essential  for  the  pro- 
tection of  life  and  liberty  openly  and  flagrantly  vio- 
lated, and  thereby  the  existence  of  our  institutions 
put  in  jeopardy.” 

Strikes  are  the  great  problems  of  the  day.  We 
have  given  the  opinions  of  eminent  people  and  of 
recognized  exponents  of  the  law-abiding  public;  but 
no  solution  is  given  of  these  problems,  which  are,  in 
effect,  tests  of  the  republic’s  form  of  government, 
and  of  its  ability  to  meet  great  forces  of  its  citizens 
practically  arrayed  against  it  in  the  form  of  war. 


94 


/IMERICAN  SLAVES 


This  insurrectionary  attitude  brought  from  Herbert 
Spencer  this  opinion:  “My  faith  in  free  institutions, 
originally  strong  (though  always  joined  with  the 
belief  that  the  maintenance  and  success  of  them  is 
a question  of  popular  character),  has  in  these  later 
years  been  greatly  decreased  by  the  conviction  that 
the  fit  character  is  not  possessed  by  any  people,  nor 
is  likely  to  be  possessed  for  ages  to  come.  A nation 
of  which  the  legislators  vote  as  they  are  bid,,  and  of 
which  the  workers  surrender  their  rights  of  selling 
their  labor  as  they  please,  has  neither  the  ideas  nor 
the  sentiments  needed  for  the  maintenance  of  liberty. 
Lacking  them,  we  are  on  the  way  back  to  the  rule 
of  the  strong  hand  in  the  shape  of  the  bureaucratic 
despotism  of  a socialistic  organization,  and  then  of  the 
military  despotism  which  must  follow  it;  if,  indeed, 
some  social  crash  does  not  bring  this  last  upon  us 
more  quickly.” 

Hut  whatever  reforms  may  follow  these  hostile 
demonstrations,and  whatever  harmonious  amity  may 
be  established  between  the  poor  and  the  rich  where- 
by the  lion  may  safely  lie  down  beside  the  lamb,  there 
will  probably  still  remain  undelivered  the  American 
Slave,  whose  liberty  is  not  in  the  enactment  and  en- 
forcement of  laws,  but  in  the  exercise  oi  his  own 
will-power  for  self-emancipation  from  hostile  con- 
ditions legally  originated  and  lawfully  maintained. 


X. 


If  an  indictment  were  to  be  framed  against  the 
Church  it  would  be  to  hold  it,  not  as  a principal,  but 
as  an  accessory  to  the  crime  (for  it  is  a crime  against 
humanity  if  not  against  the  law)  of  maintaining  by 
example,  by  doctrine  and  by  prayer,  that  system  of 
American  Slavery  which  is  originated  in  Debt,  fos- 
tered by  politics,  and  utilized  by  those  tyrants  of 
wealth  who,  by  their  abuse  of  fortune,  inflame  the 
passions  of  workmen  and  endanger  the  stability  of 
the  Republic.  This  may  lock  like  a serious  accu- 
sation to  bring  against  a mass  of  people — millions  of 
them — who,  during  a few  hours  of  one  day  in  each 
week  conform  to  their  manuals  of  creeds  and  are 
drilled  in  the  tactics  of  saints  for  conflicts  with  sin; 
but  dogmas,  no  matter  how  eloquently  propounded, 
fail  to  supply  the  stomach  with  food  and  the  dis- 
heartened with  hope.  It  is  the  real,  more  than  the 
spiritual,  which  perplexes  the  ordinary  man,  be- 
cause he  is  constantly  contending  with  the  grim,  un- 
mistakable facts  of  the  present,  while  the  hereafter 
is  an  insoluble  mystery;  and  in  this  real  life  he  wants 
only  advice  and  solace  for  the  actual  dangers  with 

05 


96 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


which  his  peace  of  mind  and  the  welfare  of  his  famili- 
are  menaced. 

Can  the  American  Slave,  envious  of  the  wealth  of 
others,  with  his  actual  liberty  imperiled  by  the  ra- 
pacity of  monopolies  and  the  arrogance  of  corpo- 
rations, and  with  his  mind  always  in  a condition  of 
apprehension  of  ambuscades  and  surprises,  can  this 
man  appeal  to  the  Church  for  that  tender  and  in- 
vigorating consolation  which  comes  from  the  unsin- 
ning in  deed  and  the  just  in  purpose?  Why,  the 
Church  is,  in  itself,  the  most  eloquent  and  extraor- 
dinary example  in  human  history  of  the  pernicious 
power  and  degrading  effect  of  enormous  wealth  in 
the  toils  of  a still  more  enormous  debt.  America 
bristles,  like  the  “fretful  porcupine,”  with  the  cross- 
tipped  domes,  spires,  steeples,  and  towers  of  buildings 
wherein  the  pulpit  is  for  the  Lord  and  the  mortgagor 
holds  the  rest  What  warning  againts  Debt  is  given 
to  Labor  by  the  sanctuaries  of  Jehovah,  temples  that 
should  be  as  unsoiled  by  lust  and  lucre  as  the  solemn 
sky  to  which  they  point;  edifices  upon  the  lintels  of 
whose  doors  there  should  show  no  grimy  finger-marks 
of  the  money  lender,  and  whose  altar  cloths  should 
not  be  fringed  with  the  colored  seals  of  notary  pub- 
lics? Can  the  debt-driven  slave  stand  in  the  grand 
Tiisles  of  such  buildings  and  seek,  in  his  misery,  for 
guidance,  when  the  very  air  about  him  is  pungent  with 
the  taint  of  the  trader  in  amalgamated  ducats  and 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


' 97 


doxologies,  who  schedules  in  his  asSets  the  Lord’s 
own,  from  the  gilded  tip  of  the  spire  down  to  the 
tiniest  screw  in  the  tabernacle?  What  succor  for  the 
weary  can  be  extracted  from  such  a compendium  of 
unliquidated  extravagancies?  Shall  the  man  of  labor 
seek  the  Church  for  advice,  when  that  very  advice 
must  be  contrary  to  its  practice? 

The  Church  in  this  countryis  of  tremendous  strength 
and  influence.  It  is  made  up  of  over  41  de- 
nominations. These  41  denominations  comprise 
164,805  organizations  whose  members  amount,  in 
round  numbers,  to  20,000,000  people.  To  accommo- 
date this  immense  gathering  of  human  beings  there 
have  been  erected  about  149, 193j)uildings,  with  seats 
for  43,500,000  persons,or  over  two  sittings  for  every 
member.  These  are,  from  a religious  point  of  view, 
very  inspiring  statistics,  showing  that,  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  land,  nearly  one  out  of  three  is  a 
member  of  some  denomination:  free  thought,  free 
speech,  free  action  and  a free  devil  take  care,  we  in- 
fer, of  the  other  two  thirds. 

But  there  is  a point  in  this  tremendous  aggrega- 
tion of  religious  elements  to  which  workingmen  may 
advantageously  give  their  attention.  If  capital  is, 
as  is  charged,  the  enemy  of  labor;  if  it  oppresses 
the  industrial  elasses,  and  if  it  must  be  fought  until, 
as  radical  agitators  demand,  there  shall  be  an  equal- 
ization if  not  an  extinction  of  wealth;  if  these  and 


98 


AMERICAN  SLAyE 


other  evils  endure  to  the  peril  of  industry,  what  shall 
be  said  of  the  Church  which,  in  the  United  States,  is 
possessed  of  property  to  the  amount  of  $68i,  541,085, 
(over  $10  for  each  man,  woman  and  child,  of  the 
country),  and  which  property  is  exempt,  we  believe, 
from  taxation  in  every  state  in  the  Union?  Have  rabid 
capital-haters  taken  into  account,  in  their  denunci- 
ation of  wealth-acquirers,  that  the  Church  is  the  one 
great  money  power  that  is  favored  by  special  legis- 
lation? That  it  owns  income-producing  property 
that  is  exempt  from  the  impost  of  taxes  levied  upon 
the  hard  working  citizen;  that  it  carries  on  vast 
commercial  undertakings  based  in  part  upon  such 
exemptions?  Do  these  reformers  ever  contemplate 
the  financial  power  of  the  Church,  and  realize  that 
it  exceeds  that  of  any  individual  state,  and  approxi- 
mates to,  if  it  does  not  exceed,  that  of  the  general 
government,  in  property  holdings,  and  in  the  means 
employed  in  its  executive  and  administrative  depart- 
ments? 

We  say  nothing  of  its  debts,  which  though 
enormous,  and  beyond  immediate  statistical  compu- 
tation, are  in  themselves  elements  of  strength  and 
not  weakness,  compelling  all  possible  leniencies,  in 
direct  contrast  to  the  treatment  given  to  ordinary 
business  transactions.  Millionaires  sink  out  of  sight 
in  the  sea  of  bankruptcy  every  day, but  seldom  does 
the  Church  suffer  such  a fate  for  any  of  its  compo- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


99 


nent  parts.  It  is  not  difficult,  in  view  of  its  temporal 
aggrandizements  and  its  spiritual  purposes, to  under- 
stand why  the  Church  is  a very  disheartening  study 
for  the  industrial  classes. 

But  is  this  great  reforming  and  regenerating  force 
doing  its  worldly  duty  by  the  workmen?  In  what 
way  are  its  ameliorating  influences  exerted  for  his 
benefit  in  the  matter  of  softening  the  hardships  of 
his  position,  or  in  educating  him  in  a knowledge  of 
how  to  obtain  a release  from  his  bondage  of  debt 
and  to  stay  released,  of  a way  to  counter  the  diffi- 
culties of  a struggle  for  life,  difficulties  that  are  puz- 
zling the  intellectual  forces  of  the  most  profound 
thinkers  of  the  world  ? The  Church  is  not  consistent 
in  its  treatment  of  mankind.  It  will  spend  thousands 
of  dollars  to  convert  a Jew  in  Jerusalem,  to  baptize  a 
Hindu  child  in  India,  or  to  hide  the  nakedness  of  an 
African  woman  with  a text-embroidered  apron;  but 
in  the  great  cities  are  hived  countless  thousands  of 
cheerless,  almost  hopeless  workers,  for  whom  a guid- 
ance through  worldly  troubles,  a little  solace  from 
spiritual  sources,  a touch  of  the  hand,  an  inspiriting 
word  from  the  lips,  would  come  as  the  manna  came 
from  heaven,  and  work  more  good  for  the  cause  of 
human  salvation  than  the  conversion  of  an  entire 
continent  of  heathens.  If  the  Church  were  practical 
it  would  make  a business  of  glorifying  the  lives,  and 
brightening  the  homes,  and  evangelizing  the  souls  of 


! 


100  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

the  American  Slaves.  It  would  employ  its  millions  \ 
of  dollars  and  the  physical  and  mental  strength  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  its  armies  of  workers,  in  saving 
the  bodies  as  well  as  the  souls  of  the  multitudes  who 
cannot  rescue  themselves.  Men  want  material  aid 
first ; the  spiritual  will  surely  follow.  Can  a starving 
man  appease  his  hunger  by  listening  to  texts  and 
homilies  from  a well-fed  man.?  Will  faith  and  an 
orthodox  sermon  buy  food  for  the  family,  or  pay  back 
rent,  or  settle  any  of  the  financial  obstacles  of  life.? 

If  the  workman  keeps  away  from  church,  it  is  not 
so  much  because  he  is  a cowardly  sinner  as  it  is  be- 
cause he  has  a manly  pride  in  not  taking  “that  back 
seat”  that  has  become  an  apothegm  of  church  attend- 
ance; it  is  because  he  wants  the  roast  beef,  and  not 
the  entrees,  of  a Sabbath  discourse.  If  Christ  were 
once  more  preaching  on  earth,  would  he  feed  the  multi- 
tude with  theories  rather  than  with  facts.?  Would 
his  sermons  be  according  to  the  wisdom  of  his  lis- 
teners, or  would  they  be  keyed  up  to  the  under- 
standing of  logicians  and  philosophers.?  Would  he 
talk  of  the  natural,  which  everybody  may  compre- 
hend, or  of  the  supernatural,  which  the  hardest  of 
theological  training  fails  to  penetrate.?  The  A B C’s 
of  life,  plain  or  colored,  are  the  needs  of  the  hour; 
sophisms  about  the  hereafter  teach  nothing  and  ^ 
prove  nothing.  I 

It  is  not  a matter  of  surprise  that  the  Roman  Catholic  j 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


101 


Church  has  become,  more  than  any  other  denomina- 
tion, the  poor  man’s  friend.  It  strives  to  make  life 
worth  living,  and  under  its  teachings  death  becomes 
something  more  than  a terrible  penalty  for  having 
lived.  It  preaches  hope.  Its  temples  are  free  to  all. 
The  music  of  its  choirs  reaches  the  heart.  The  voices 
of  its  priests  ascend  to  heaven  for  rich  and  poor  alike. 
To  its  solemn  pageantries  all  are  welcomed.  By  its 
ministrations  sin  is  softened,  and  sorrow  alleviated. 
Priest  and  penitent  come  together  in  misery  as  well 
as  gladness.  The  wicked  confess,  and  their  lives 
are  whitened.  The  poor  seek  counsel  reverently  and 
hopefully,  and  their  appeals  are  not  to  deaf  ears 
and  dumb  lips.  There  is  companionship,  and  trust, 
and  faithias  between  the  humble  souls  and  the  church 
which  ministers  to  them.  In  its  relation  to  men  and 
the  government  Archbishop  Ireland  has  declared 
that — “The  position  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  easily 
defined.  She  stands  for  rights  and  duties,  for  labor 
and  for  capital  so  long  as  both  follow  duties  and  the 
one  allows  the  right  of  the  other.  But  always  and 
everywhere  and  above  all  the  civil  and  social  interest 
or  considerations,  she  stands  for  public  justice  and 
social  order.  She  abhors  and  forbids  all  approach 
to  lawlessness  and  anarchy;  she  commands  obedience 
to  law,  and  stern  loyalty  to  country  and  its  institu- 
tions.” 

Why  discriminate Let  it  be  considered  that  ail  de- 


102 


/IMERICAN  SLAVES 


nominations  are  animated  by  the  same  spirit,  have  the 
same  object  in  view  and  cherish  the  same  theories  of 
public  welfare.  But  we  ask  why  the  beautiful  flow- 
ers of  human  nature,  as  we  have  it,  are  not  developed 
to  a glorious  fruition?  Why  have  such  a sedulous  cul- 
tivation of  the  thistles  and  nettles  of  abstract  religious 
polemics?  We  are  writing  about  Church  and  Churches 
as  if  they  were  what  they  ought  to  be — temples  of  the 
Lord.  We  do  not  mean  a minister’s  church — the 
church  of  Talmage,  or  Spurgeon,  or  Swing.  The 
worldly  and  the  devout  have  come,  in  many  cases, 
to  classify  congregations  by  the  name  of  the  divine 
who  leads  them,  and  who,  in  many  minds,  takes  pre- 
cedence of  the  Christ  whose  teachings  he  professes 
to  follow.  We  refer  to  the  Church  as  a church  for 
all,  where  English  is  spoken,  where  Orientalism  in 
subject  and  language  has  given  way  to  comprehen- 
sible lessons  as  to  temporal  and  spiritual  duties. 
Put  thoughts  for  workmen  in  workmen’s  clothes  and 
not  in  a broadcloth-and-linen  vocabulary,  and  then 
they  will  understand  much  that  is  now,  for  them, 
enigmas. 

Christ  preached  for  the  poor  rather  than  the  rich. 
He  was  understood.  To-day  the  poor  are  given  bal- 
loon ideas  instead  of  bread-and-meat  thoughts.  The 
average  churches  are  capitalistic,  because,  from  an 
utilitarian  point  of  view,  a rich  sinner  is  more  valu- 
able than  a needy  saint. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES  lOS 

The  railway  workers*  strike  of  1894  temporarily 
aroused,  if  it  did  not  alarm  the  orators  of  the  pul- 
pit. If  there  were  slaves  on  the  back  seats  they  - 
heard  the  detonations  of  the  toy  torpedoes  of  modern 
defenders  of  the  faith.  Rip  Van  Winkles  of  religions 
woke  up  all  over  the  country,  and  discovered  that 
the  American  workman  was  not  torpid  but  dangerous- 
ly alive.  One  Chicago  divine,  feeling  that  a sermon  for 
the  poor  might  not  be  inappropriate,  suggested  that — 
‘‘The  people  who  feel  the  hard  times  most  severely  are 
God’s  people.  They  are  the  workingmen,  the  men 
with  moderate  income  and  thought  for  something 
besides  wealth.  The  wealthy  are  not,  as  a rule, 
God’s  people.  Faith  must  be  put  in  the  words  of 
the  apostle.  In  hard  times  the  one  who  feels  it  most 
needs  not  so  much  gold  and  silver  as  comfort  and 
inspiration.  No  poor  man  should  be  turned  away 
without  kind  words,  however  little  money  can  be 
spared,  even  though  he  be  known  to  be  a rascal  and 
a hypocrite.  He  should  be  shown  there  is  an  aid  be- 
yond that  of  finance.  ” 

Another  minister  treated  his  people  to  a disser- 
tation on  “hard  times.”  The  American  Slave  may 
have  been  in  that  congregation.  He  may  have  under- 
stood that— “All  good  men  believe  in  about  the  same 
essentials.  But  when  we  come  to  formulating  our 
creeds,  differences  arise.  These,  however,  are  largely 
conflicts  of  forms  rather  than  of  principles,  of  opin- 


104 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


ions  rather  than  of  convictions,  of  the  letter  rather 
than  of  the  spirit.  When  our  deeds  are  our  creeds 
and  our  lives  are  our  liturgies,  how  well  do  all  good 
men  agree!  Orthodox  theology  is  of  little  value  un- 
less it  inspires  one  to  do  his  orthodox  duties.  We 
cannot  believe  that  God  loves  orthodox  theology  as 
he  loves  orthodox  purity,  orthodox  honesty, orthodox 
kindness,  orthodox  manliness.  Nor  can  we  think 
that  the  divine  Being  hates  the  infidelity  of  men’s 
philosophies  as  he  hates  the  infidelity  of  men’s  mean- 
ness, pride,  selfishness  and  dishonesty.  There  is  no 
religion  that  can  save  a man  except  the  religion  that 
makes  him  a good  man.” 

But  what  comfort  did  he  derive  from  a lesson  that 
ended  with  this  sort  of  consolation:  ‘‘There  is 
philosophy  as  well  as  Christianity  and  we  must  take 
things  as  they  come.  The  shortsightedness  of  be- 
grudging one’s  neighbor  is  shown  in  the  ignorance  of 
that  neighbor’s  actual  condition.  With  elegant 
mansion  and  large  income,  apparent  happiness  and 
prosperity,  are  the  family  skeletons,  the  endangered 
wealth,  the  cancer  that  is  eating  away  the  vitals  of 
domestic  happiness,  the  mortgages  which  threaten 
to  take  away  the  wealth-laden  home.  The  man 
whose  prosperity  is  envied  by  his  neighbor  may  be 
praying  for  death  as  a relief.” 

It  would  be  useless  to  quote  others.  The  occasion 
brought  out  hesitations  and  hedgings  between  the 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


105 


teachings  of  Christ  on  the  side  of  the  poor,  and  the 
income  of  the  Church  on  the  side  of  the  rich — be- 
tween the  soul  under  blue  jeans-and  the  soul  under 
black  broadcloth.  The  minister  is  more  politic  than 
the  editors  of  religious  weeklies.  The  Christian  at 
Work  of  New  York  city  said  that — “Allowing  for  all 
misconceptions,  the  ill-advised  conduct,  the  outrages 
and  indefensible  brutalities  marking  the  course  of 
the  strikers  in  this  struggle,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
there  is  a measure  of  right  and  justice  in  their  cause. 
That  great  wrongs  exist  in  the  industrial  world, 
wrongs  against  the  workers  that  need  to  be  righted, 
is  a truth  which  must  be  recognized.  That  the 
strikers  have  resorted  to  criminal  methods  to  right 
these  wrongs  does  not  alter  the  fact  of  their  exist- 
ence. For  these  crimes  they  should  be  punished  as 
other  criminals  are  punished.  There  can  be  no  jus- 
tification for  the  fiendish  deeds  which  are  being 
committed  in  the  name  of  Labor.  But  back  of  all 
the  strife  and  struggles  are  the  conditions  which  have 
produced  it;  to  these  the  minds  of  all  who  desire  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  the  country  must  be  turned. 
Shotguns,  prisons,  courts  of  law  and  boards  of  arbi- 
tration will  not  heal  this  social  disease.  We  must 
get  at  the  sources  of  it,  or  our  industrial  fabric  will 
perish.” 

Nearly  all  agree  that,  underneath  the  wrongs  done 
by  workmen,  there  are  deeper  wrongs  done  to  them 


i 


106  AMERICAN  SL/iyES 

for  which  there  must  be  redress.  With  the  law  no 
longer  a protector  of  their  condition,  and  the  courts 
becoming  inaccessible  through  the  expense  attending 
upon  any  appeal  for  justice,  the  workman  finds  himself 
isolated  in  matters  of  personal  rights.  The  time 
has  been,  and  still  is,  for  the  Church  to  become  the 
guide  and  champion  of  the  poor  in  temporal  as  in 
spiritual  affairs, if  humanity  is  to  be  equalized  on  earth 
as  in  heaven,  and  until  the  Church  becomes  a more 
active  factor  in  the  regeneration  of  the  flesh  and  blood 
of  the  human  race,  regardless  of  creeds,  caste  and 
color,  and  apart  from  all  schemes  for  soul  insurance, 
then  the  wonderful  teachings  of  that  wonderful 
Christ  teacher,  the  revolutionizer  of  human  kind,  will 
lose  their  vitality  and  their  value.  With  its  fabulous 
wealth,  its  immeasurable  power,  and  its  aggregation 
of  the  grandest  intellectual  forces  of  the  world, it  be- 
longs to  the  Church  to  do  the  heavy  work  in  the 
emancipation  of  “all  who  are  weary  and  heavy  laden.” 


XL 


Insensibly,  surely,  and  universally  labor  agitation 
has  produced  labor  caste.  It  is  the  inevitable  result 
of  the  co-operation  of  the  many  labor  organizations 
that  there  should  be  developed  a pronounced  senti- 
ment as  to  the  degrees  of  merit  or  excellence  of  each 
different  class  of  industry.  Trades  do  not  admit 
that  socially  or  intellectually,  or  in  occupations  of 
skill,  or  where  scientific  attainments  are  requisite, 
or  where  a knowledge  of  mechanics  is  imperatively 
necessary,  that  all  are  upon  one  dead  level.  La- 
bor, which  has  perfected  itself  only  by  the  hard  ex- 
perience and  untiring  trials  of  many  years,  naturally 
regards  itself  as  of  a higher  order  than  that  avo- 
cation which  needs  but  little  judgment,  is  quickly 
acquired,  and  susceptible  of  immediate  replacement. 
The  diamond  cutter  is  rated  above  the  cutter  of  mar- 
ble and  granite;  the  goldsmith  is  on  a higher  plane 
than  the  chain  forger;  the  mason  is  superior  to  the 
hod-carrier,  and  the  machinist  must  possess  more 
ability  than  the  horse-shoer.  Will  the  typesetter 
admit  that  he  is  of  no  more  importance  and  value  to 
the  world  than  the  teamster,  and  will  the  practical 
electrician  range  himself  in  the  same  grade  as  the 

107 


108 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


gas  maker?  Yet  these  necessary  and  inevitable  class 
divisions  of  labor  are  insurpassable  barriers  to  that 
communism  which  a certain  kind  of  society  reform- 
ers are  scheming  to  establish  in  the  world  of  industry. 
The  employees  of  certain  railroads  recently  made 
an  exhibit  of  power  that,  for  a brief  but  chaotic  time, 
suppressed  trade,  commerce  and  manufactures.  This 
very  caste  condition  to  which  we  have  referred  was 
prominent  among  the  unions.  Wise  leadership  de- 
veloped class  antagonisms  and  drew  dividing  lines 
so  broad  as  to  make  absolute  co-operation  impossi- 
ble. Many  classes  of  railroad  employees  would  not 
strike.  It  was  not  mutiny,  but  a sagacious  refusal 
to  enlist  and  chance  a struggle  in  which  everything 
might  be  lost  and  nothing  practical  gained.  It  was 
not  human  nature  for  the  workmen  with  knowledge 
and  skill,  the  drilled  trooper  of  labor,  to  submit, 
voluntarily,  to  a sacrifice  of  his  interests  for  the 
benefit  of  those  whose  employment  was  beneath  him, 
because  it  was  not  so  valuable  to  his  em- 
ployer or  the  country.  Yet  to  a certain  extent  these 
very  outbreaks  brought  certain  castes  into  compact 
order  under  a flush  of  enthusiasm  as  evanescent  as  the 
puff  of  smoke  from  a cannon. 

Col.  Clark  E.  Carr,  in  a speech  at  a regimental 
reunion,  said  he  saw  symptoms  of  caste  in  the  labor 
agitation  of  the  day;  but,  as  may  be  seen,  his  ap- 
prehensions were  based  upon  a distinction  between 
labor  and  capital.  He  said: 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


109 


“I  do  not  like  the  idea  that  there  is  a distinctive 
laboring  class  in  this  country,  as  distinguished  from 
other  citizens.  It  tends  to  permanently  set  apart 
one  portion  of  our  citizens  to  the  drudgeries  of  man- 
ual labor— that  is,  it  establishes  caste,  I have  no 
patience  with  the  idea  that  because  a man  is  a me- 
chanic, a clerk,  engineer,  conductor,  brakeman,  or 
common  laborer  or  farm  hand  to-day  he  must  per- 
manently remain  in  what  is  known  as  the  laboring 
class.  Marshall  Field  has  been  his  whole  life  a la- 
boring man;  so  have  Potter  Palmer,  John  B.  Drake, 
C,  B.  Farwell,  Joseph  Medill,  Franklin  MacVeagh, 
and  nearly  every  prominent  man  in  Chicago.  C. 
H.  Chappell,  A.  N,  Towne,  John  D.  Besler,  and  the 
late  James  T.  Clark  were  railroad  workers.  The 
laborer  may  be  the  employer  to-morrow.  Arbitra- 
tion recognizes  caste,  assuming  that  there  is  a capi- 
tal caste  and  a laboring  class,  and  cannot  remedy 
the  evil,  I can  see  no  way  out  of  the  difficulties 
save  by  co-operation.” 

But  the  establishment  of  such  a grading  could  not 
be  enduring,  for  the  reason  that  there  would  be  a 
constant  changing  of  the  component  parts,  the  cease- 
less and  successful  rising  to  a higher  social  plane,  and 
vigorous  contestants  taking  their  places — just  such 
quite  revolutions  as  have  been  going  on  for  thousands 
of  years,  and  such  as  will  continue  as  long  as  nature 
and  men  are  what  they  are. 


ito 


AMBRICAh!  SLAVES 


I 


There  must  be  an  aristocracy  in  all  things;  for  | 
birth,  mental  endowments,  physical  developments 
and  social  and  personal  surroundings  are  different  for 
each  man,  woman  and  child.  If  all  persons  were 
equal  in  all  things,  existence  would  be  stagnation  and 
stagnation  a living  death.  The  desire  to  excel  and 
the  ambition  to  acquire  raise  men  out  of  the  quag- 
mire of  inaction.  Mr.  Charles  E.  Banks  fears  that 
the  recognition  of  an  aristocracy  of  and  in  labor  is 
inviting  the  world  to  become  muscle  worshipers. 

He  has  written:  “Let  us  look  first  at  the  trades  or 
callings  represented  by  the  present  labor  agitators. 
Miners,  railroad  firemen,  switchmen  and  brakeman 
form  the  nucleus  of  the  army,  led  by  their  self-ap- 
pointed General  Debs.  To  these  are  added  unions  of 
every  description  from  teamsters  down  to  bar-tenders. 

In  the  long  published  list  of  organizations  which  con- 
template going  on  a strike  for  the  purpose  of  starv- 
ing the  remainder  of  humanity  into  sympathy  with 
them,  there  was  no  labor  represented  other  than 
muscle  labor.  No  cunning  artificer  or  clever  ac- 
countant, no  task  in  which  study,  practice,  skill,  is 
required  was  represented  in  any  of  the  so-called 
‘labor  unions’  that  proclaimed  their  superior  right  to 
set  the  standard  of  wages  and  then  enforce  idleness 
for  themselves  and  their  fellows  while  more  intelli- 
gent workers  labored  to  feed  them.  The  plan  was 
evidently  this:  workers  with  fine  tools  on  costly  sub' 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


111 


stances — workers  who  were  required  not  only  to 
bring  to  their  tasks  trained  fingers  and  clear  eyes  but 
educated  brains  and  patience,  energy  and  care, should 
continue  to  work  and  contribute  of  their  earnings  to 
those  self-same  idlers. 

“Have  we  come  to  be  a nation  of  muscle  worshipers? 
Is  coal-heaving  and  wood-sawing  the  only  labor 
worthy  of  respect?  Must  we  emulate  the  action  of 
the  steamboat  ‘roustabout'  rather  than  that  of  the 
weaver  of  laces  or  the  writer  of  history?  God  forbid! 
The  task  which  requires  the  least  preparation  for  its 
execution  has  always  been  the  poorest  paid.  The 
farmer  cannot  hope  to  succeed  in  his  calling  without 
systematic  training.  The  merchant  must  serve  a 
number  of  years  as  errand-boy,  under'-clerk,  book- 
keeper, buyer  and  seller  of  the  goods  of  others  be- 
fore he  can  hope  to  successfully  open  an  establish- 
ment of  his  own.  But  against  these  and  similar  vo- 
cations the  muscle  laborers  have  the  dictum,  ‘Sym- 
pathize with  us,  contribute  or  starve.'  There  might 
be  some  show  of  justice  in  this  if  it  were  proved  that 
the  muscle  laborer  had  a monopoly  in  his  field  of 
work.  But,  on  the  contrary,  the  late  railroad  strike 
demonstrated  the  general  manager's  ability  to  run  an 
engine,  the  bookkeeper's  willingness  and  strength  to 
fire  it,  and  the  porter's  intelligence  to  handle  a switch 
for  its  passage.  And  all  these  without  an  hour's 
preparation. 


113 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


“Suppose  the  men  employed  in  the  offices,  the  pro- 
fessions and  the  arts  were  to  sit  down,  fold  their 
hands,  and  say  to  the  muscle  workers:  ‘Get  along 
without  us.  We  are  tired  of  working  for  your  bene- 
fit. ’ How  long  would  the  members  of  these  boasted 
labor  unions  exist?  Just  so  long  as  they  could  riot 
on  the  savings  of  these  more  skillful  toilers  and  no 
longer.  It  is  time  labor  should  be  respected  for  what 
it  accomplishes  and  not  for  its  name  alone.  No  man 
has  a more  enduring  sympathy  for  the  toilers  of  the 
world  than  have  the  writers  and  thinkers  of  modern 
times.  But  because  these  men  have  a clear  vision  that 
covers  a wide  range,  because  they  recognize  the  right 
to  respect  of  all  labor  that  is  productive,  the  muscle- 
worker  cries  out  against  the  man,  turns  to  applaud 
the  few  who  utter  vicious  thoughts,  who  counsel  an- 
archy and  chaos. 

“Let  us  be  fair,  O fellow  workmen.  There  are 
many  vineyards  and  the  fruit  of  each  requires  differ- 
ent handling  Out  of  the  lower,  the  heavier,  we 
may  advance  to  the  higher,  the  lighter  labor.  But 
strikes  will  not  help  to  do  it.  Better  wages  we  all 
desire,  but  better  wages  come  only  with  better  work. 
Coercing  by  starvation  is  a false  theory  and  false- 
hood never  yet  accomplished  good.” 

Mr.  Banks  is  right,  theoretically,  but  all  danger 
of  muscle  worship  exceeding  the  bounds  of  sanity 
might  be  quickly  and  easily  avoided  by  organizing 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


113 


unions  of  brain  workers  and  finger  workers.  When 
you  begin  to  classify  avocations  you  lay  a foun- 
dation for  caste  and  sow  the  seeds  of  an  aristocracy, 
not  of  wealth  or  blood,  but  of  the  conquering  attri- 
butes of  industry.  Aristocracy, as  we  know  it  to-day, 
in  fact  and  fiction,  is  the  tail  end  of  generations 
which  thrived  on  robbery,  rapine,  lust,  piracy  and 
omnivorous  crimes  without  names.  Aristocracy,  as  it 
might  be,  and  may  be, can  emanate  from  muscle  and 
mind,  and  in  the  centuries  to  come  no  man,  tracing 
out  his  genealogy,  would  have  need  to  blush  in  dis- 
covering that  his  streak  of  blue  blood  began  its  trick- 
ling in  the  heart  of  one  who  honestly  labored  with 
hand  or  head.  The  goldsmiths  of  ancient  Troy  and 
mediaeval  London,  the  silver  workers  of  prehistoric 
India,  and  the  sword-makers  of  biblical  Damascus, 
have  worked  their  achievements  into  living  events, 
and  we  know  them  as  castes  of  labor  so  high,  and  so 
distinctive,  that  history  has  made  their  trades  im- 
mortal. 

Society  is  in  no  danger  from  these  minor  divisions 
of  life,  which  are  really  only  stimulants  to  perfection. 
Any  attempt  to  amalgamate  castes,  any  conspiracy 
to  unify  diverse  social  and  industrial  elements,  is 
sure  to  be  defeated  by  the  hostile  selfishness  and  the 
belligerent  pride  of  the  people  who  compose  such 
classes.  This  is  the  fate  that  overtakes  such  aris- 
tocratical  combinations,  or  in  current  phrase,  such 


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AMERICAN  SLAVES 


“capitalistic  syndicates,’^  Labor  is  just  as  jealous, 
just  as  sensitive,  just  as  powerful  as  capital;  and  as 
capital  has  its  castes  and  its  degrees  of  worth,  so 
will  labor  follow  natural  laws,  and  rate  its  clansmen 
as  to  their  financial  and  intellectual  assets.  As 
capital  has  its  class  hates  and  prejudices,  and  is  con- 
tinually at  war  within  its  lines,  or  scheming  for  the 
ruin  or  disgrace  of  its  members,  labor  will  do  the 
same;  for  by  what  process  can  it  eradicate  from  hu- 
man nature  those  evils  of  existence  implanted  by  the 
Creator  in  man,  and  the  absence  of  which  would  make 
him  a god? 

Caste  will  not  help  the  American  Slave;  it  will 
hurt  him.  The  more  skillful  his  hands, the  more  ac- 
tive his  brains,  the  greater  his  ambition, the  more  un- 
controllable his  desire  for  rising  in  life,  the  less  care- 
ful he  will  become  in  his  means  of  reaching  higher 
places  and  the  more  easily  he  will,  in  his  needs,  fall 
a prey  to  the  credit  caste  and  that  vulture  of  industry, 
that  scavenger  of  suffrage  scraps,  the  Politician. 


XII. 


The  French  have  always  been  fine  fellows  in  shout- 
ing “down”  with  this,  that  and  the  other  thing,  rang- 
ing from  a placard  on  a wall  to  a king’s  head  on  a 
throne.  Unhappily  for  the  personal  security  of  the 
people  threatened,  this  fateful  cry  is  generally  an- 
swered in  the  affirmative.  In  this  country  the  gen- 
tlemen who  are  permitted  to  do  the  workmen’s  talk- 
ing have  been  vociferous  at  public  meetings  in  crying 
out,  “down  with  the  press,”  “down  with  the  capital- 
istic newspapers,”  “down  with  the  robber-journals,” 
and  so  forth.  And  they  are  so  earnest  about  this 
particular  subject  for  demolition,  and  there  is  such 
uniformity  in  the  outcry, as  to  awaken  a suspicion  that 
the  orators  have  in  the  matter  a personal  hate  caused, 
possibly,  by  newspaper  criticisms.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  the  fashion  and  the  fancy  of  the  day  for  the 
journalists  to  write  about  what  they  term  the  “pure 
press,”  and  to  affirm,  in  substance,  that  newspapers 
exist  as  barriers  between  Law  and  Anarchy,  uphold- 
ing the  one  and  opposing  the  other,  and  by  their 
broad  diffusion  of  unbiased  information  becoming  a 
sort  of  balance-wheel  in  governmental  affairs. 

115 


116 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


Let  US  consider  whether  either  party  is  right!  How 
long  a time  is  it  since  a certain  line  of  newspapers, 
meaning  weeklies  as  well  as  dailies,  amused  their 
readers  with  editorials  and  with  cartoons  that  in- 
cited the  rage  or  the  ridicule,  or  both,  of  the  wage- 
earners  against  employers  ? The  same  papers  had 
no  hesitation  in  pictorially  degrading  the  President, 
Congress,  Supreme  Court  Judges,  anybody  and  every- 
thing, in  an  effort  to  curry  favor  w’ith  workmen. 
Going  still  lower,  these  papers  told  the  laborers  that 
they  were  serfs,  slaves,  valets,  vassals,  and  in  all 
menial  conditions  possible,  to  capital  and  capitalists. 
The  English  language  was  exhausted  in  finding  terms 
of  opprobrium  for  men  who  had  money,  and  new 
catchwords  of  insult  were  invented.  Cartoons  were 
concocted  for  men  who  could  not  read,  and  were  ser- 
mons of  sedition  so  far  as  effects  were  concerned. 
In  fact,  little  more  could  have  been  done  to  create 
hatred  between  the  labor-hirers  and  the  men  hired, 
and  to  plant  the  seeds  of  an  insurrection.  The  papers 
which  did  this  were  not  capitalist  papers,  neither 
were  they  pure  or  unprejudiced;  on  the  contrary, 
they  were  mercenary  and  venal — wantons  in  journal- 
ism and  the  pariahs  of  society.  They  helped  to  lay 
the  groundwork  of  strikes,  boycotts,  riots  and  mur- 
der, not  in  a campaign  of  principle,  but  as  ambus- 
cades for  plunder.  The  law  was  made  contemptible, 
and  the  officers  of  the  law,  from  President  down  to 


American  slaves 


li7 

village  constable,  become  ridiculous  and  detestable. 
Was  this  true  journalism?  Have  such  assaults 
helped  the  cause  of  labor?  The  satire  of  incendiar- 
ism, the  petition  of  a bludgeon,  the  conclusion  of  dead 
workmen  slaughtered  as  a result  of  the  logic  of  cob- 
ble stones,  are  certainly  not  arguments  in  behalf  of 
industrial  reforms. 

But  there  is  caste  in  journalism  as  in  other  profes- 
sions. There  are  good,  bad  and  indifferent  news- 
papers. We  doubt  whether  there  are  pure  ones,  A 
“pure  press”  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  an  impossi- 
ble press,  because  in  journalism,  as  in  all  other  kinds 
of  business,  selfishness  is  the  dominant  power;  and 
where  selfishness  exists,  purity  of  thought,  purpose 
and  action  at  once  become  unmixable  elements. 
Sentiments  and  Sunday  school  texts  have  but  little 
influence  in  business  transactions.  Newspapers  are 
business  enterprises,  conducted  for  certain  money- 
making purposes;  and  to  carry  out  those  purposes,  all 
legitimate,  if  not  exactly  creditable,  means  are  em- 
ployed. They  try  to  impart  news  and  give  advice; 
the  first  is  what  is  given  them,  the  second  is  what 
they  give  away  in  the  shape  of  personal  opinions. 
Both  may  be  biased  by  party  affiliations,  by  personal 
ignorance,  by  religious  warpings,  or  by  a greed  for 
wealth  or  power  that  goes  for  everything  and  stops 
at  nothing. 

It  is  a waste  of  words  for  labor  agitators  to  denounce 


118 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


the  press  as  being  capitalistic.  It  takes  a good  deal  of 
money  to  conduct  the  cheapest  of  newspapers,  and 
a large  proportion  of  the  journals  of  this  country 
are  owned  or  managed  by  ex-workmen,  retired  wage- 
earners,  men  with  level  heads  and  long  pockets*  If 
their  owners  are  rich  the  attitude  of  the  paper  is 
naturally  capitalistic,  that  of  self-defense, — just  as 
the  laborer  will  fight  in  defense  of  the  wallet  con- 
taining his  weeks’  wages  without  inquiring  of  the 
robber  whether  he  is  for  or  against  capital.  As  a 
party  or  political  paper  deriving  power  and  support 
from  one  of  the  great  parties,  it  must,  necessarily, be 
subservient  to  and  controlled  by  the  creed  of  that 
organization,  preach  its  doctrines,  whether  they  are 
right  or  wrong,  and  so  secure  as  a portion  of  its  reward, 
an  agreed  upon  share  of  the  spoils  of  victory. 
Such  journals  seldom  break  away  from  their  tethers 
and  act  in  hostility  to  the  plans  outlined  by  the  high 
officials  of  their  party.  As  its  faction  goes,  so  goes 
the  party  newspaper;  and  as  all  the  parties,  hungry 
for  the  votes  of  the  laborer,  are  anti-capitalistic, 
so  ought  to  be  the  newspaper  organs  which  help 
to  speak  for  them.  Whether  there  can  be  honesty 
of  purpose  or  sincerity  of  opinion  in  this  sort  of 
combination  is  a question  which  the  workman  is  as 
well  able  as  anybody  else  to  decide. 

As  for  the  religious  press,  quote  it  as  a hybrid — 
part  saint  and  part  sinner — but  necessarily,  with 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


119 


more  than  enough  of  the  latter  to  so  pepper  and 
salt  the  former  as  to  give  it  a palatable  flavor.  It 
mixes  business  with  religion,  religion  with  politics, 
politics  with  domestic  affairs,  and  domestic  affairs 
with  affairs  of  state,  until  sane  heads  grow  heavy 
with  the  multiplicity  of  creeds,  dogmas,  fanatical 
theories  and  hyperborean  sentiments,  all  turned  out 
with  a stony  indifference  to  the  needs  of  mankind 
for  something  enlivening.  Primarily  the  offspring  of 
capital,  else  they  could  not  exist,  they  inflate  them- 
selves continually  with  the  dried  apples  and  water  of 
such  theories  as  appear  to  be  most  conducive  to  the 
success,  first  of  themselves,  then  of  the  Church,  and, 
lastly,  of  the  public  in  general.  How  can  such 
journalism  be  what  is  termed  pure,  with  such  eccen- 
tricities of  purpose  and  such  contrarieties  of  opin- 
ions and  results?  Is  it  consistent  to  denounce  man, 
on  one  page,  as  a sinner,  and  on  another  to  paint 
him  as  a saint,  because  the  editorial  end  of  the  con- 
cern must  sermonize  and  the  business  end  cajole? 
Still,  whatever  the  attitude  of  the  paper,  it  must 
always  be  remembered  that  the  religious  press  tries 
to  be  a business  press;  and  every  hardened  man  of 
the  world  knows  that  the  business  man  deals  in  ideas 
that  range  from  old  junk  up  to  jewels.  The  religious 
papers  have  not  done  their  duty  by  the  workman. 
The  railroad  boycott  brought  out  from  them  criti- 
cisms, comments  and  advice;  but,  like  the  coadjutors 


120 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


of  the  pulpit  in  the  conspiracy  times  of  peace,  they 
ran  in  their  editorial  columns  ethical  disquisitions, 
and  salvation  recipes,  but  mighty  little  of  intellec- 
tual hard  tack  for  men  of  muscle.  The  journalism 
of  the  church  is  not  the  press  by  which  industry  is 
benefited,  sorely  as  it  may  need  its  alliance.  » 

As  for  what  is  termed  the  “independent”  press,  it 
exists  only  as  an  ideal.  It  cannot  exist  as  a real. 
Publishers  and  editors  are  ordinary  mortals  so  far  as 
resources  are  concerned  and,  in  matters  of  business, 
consider  self  first  and  the  people  afterwards.  When- 
ever they  take  a stand  in  political  or  social  affairs,  it 
is  taken  for  money,  or  power,  or  both.  As  a market- 
able commodity  their  influence  and  that  of  their  pa- 
per is  for  sale,  just  as  other  men  sell  their  time,  their 
goods,  or  the  product  of  their  brains.  Editors  and 
publishers  are  poor,  weak  mortals  and,  as  the  saying 
runs,  they  are  not  getting  out  newspapers  for  love 
or  for  their  health.  If,  in  this  taken-for-granted  in- 
dependence, they  tell  you  one  thing  to-day  as  being 
the  truth  and  to-morrow  assert  as  the  truth  some- 
thing diametrically  opposite,  they  are  not  so  much 
liars  as  they  are  dealers  in  expedients  permissible 
in  journalism.  When,  in  political  matters,  they  lead 
you  to  a precipice  of  principle,  and  then,  in  the 
dark,  abandon  you,  you  will  find,  if  you  escape  the 
peril,  that  your  guides  are  not  traitors  but  philoso- 
phers. If,  when  you  are  absolutely  starving  for  truth, 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


121 


they  fill  you  full  of  alluvial  errors  and  jingling  false- 
hoods, don’t  call  them  clowns  but  credit  them  with 
being  tillers  of  a too  willing  soil.  In  general  the  “in- 
dependent” promises  everything,  gives  nothing  and 
does  business  on  the  margins.  With  its  butterfly 
strategies,  its  starveling  ideas  rattling  against  each 
other  like  autumn  leaves,  with  a consistency  that’s 
inconsistent  in  advocating  social  heresies  and  politi- 
cal suicides,  this  style  of  newspaper,  like  the  little 
cricket  by  the  way-side,  chirps  its  valorous  notes,  and 
believes  the  whole  world  deafened  with  its  noise. 

But  there  are  newspapers  which  do  a world  of  good. 
If  they  are  managed  by  brave,  sagacious,  fair-minded 
men,  they  are  almost  always  to  be  found  advocating 
reforms  to  benefit  the  poor,  the  wretched,  the  home- 
less and  the  hopeless.  They  show  an  indefatigable 
philanthropy  in  behalf  of  great  charities  and  vast 
public  enterprises,  and  aim  to  conserve,  with  jealous 
care,  the  interests  of  the  people  of  commonwealths. 
In  political  matters  they  are,  unfortunately,  domi- 
nated by  party  platforms  and  are  compelled  to  travel, 
tender-footed,  over  roads  paved  with  vexing  problems 
not  down  in  the  charts.  They  are  watchful,  to  a 
fighting  point,  of  state  sovereignty,  and  generous  in 
the  support  of  the  church.  Their  ideas  of  Political 
Economy  are  as  diverse  as  the  specifics  of  physicians, 
and  their  prescriptions  for  the  cure  of  political  evils 
are  equally  as  uncertain  as  those  of  doctors  for  the 


122 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


human  body.  Day  by  day  they  give  the  public  a 
diagnosis  of  the  world  for  the  previous  twenty-four 
hours,  and  night  by  night  that  world  goes  to  bed 
with  more  knowledge  of  itself  than  the  greatest  prophet 
or  wildest  statesman  has  ever  dreamed  of  obtaining. 

The  Press  is  such  a composite  creation  of  wit  and 
wisdom,  purity  and  impurity,  crankiness  and  caprices, 
inconsistency  and  firmness,enthusiasm  and  fanaticism, 
weakness  and  stability, vigor  and  vapidity,  generosity 
and  meanness, and  illumined  by  such  a ceaseless  dis- 
play of  the  thunder  and  lightning  of  a great  heaven  of 
intellect,  as  to  be  the  wonder  of  the  present  and  a 
possible  puzzle  for  the  future. 


XIIL 


It  is  admitted  by  the  ablest  of  economic  doctors 
that  society  is  seriously  ill.  There  is  an  insanity  of 
labor  that  is  believed  to  be  curable;  there  is  a high 
fever,  breaking  into  delirium,  that  is  dangerous;  and 
there  is  a condition  of  melancholia  that  is  the  germi- 
nating bed  of  crime.  We  have  shown  an  indifferent 
public  the  American  Slave  as  the  victim  of  evils 
created,  fostered  and  endorsed  by  the  government, 
by  the  Church  and  by  society.  To  free  the  slave 
we  must  eradicate  the  disease  and  right  the  wrongs 
of  the  industrial  classes.  . They  have  wrongs,  and 
serious  ones — wrongs  the  causes  of  which  are  not  to 
be  removed  by  the  sophistries  of  statesmen,  the  ve- 
neered philanthropy  of  congressmen,  the  bass  drum 
prayers  of  the  Church,  or  the  charity  hops  of  the 
wealthy.  The  question  before  the  people  is  not  Why? 
but  How?  That  question  must  be  answered  quickly 
and  effectively.  Religion  has  had  its  Reformation, 
and  its  title  deed  to  Liberty  is  written  in  blood. 
Let  us  not  wait  until  labor  is  forced  to  secure  its 
manumission  through  a similar  prdeal! 

But  the  best  of  our  noted  men  are  puzzled  as  to 

123 


124 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


what  the  means  shall  be.  Workmen  should  under- 
stand that  the  formation  of  or  the  amalgamation  with 
political  parties  will  increase  and  not  decrease  the 
economic  evils  of  their  condition,  because  the  politi- 
cian has  not  a grain  of  philanthropy  in  his  compo- 
sition and,  acting  entirely  from  self-interest,  con- 
siders the  wage-working  elements  as  worth  only  that 
complaisant  attention  which  will  secure  their  ballot. 
That  ballot  once  obtained,  the  confiding  voter  must 
wait  until  the  next  election  for  a repetition  of  the  de- 
ception. 

Avoiding  these  ambuscades  of  traitorous  friends, 
the  industrial  classes  may  be  relieved  through 
less  pernicious  and  dangerous  methods  than  strikes 
and  boycotts,  Archbishop  Ireland  has  said  that  these 
“strikes  read  a lesson  to  capital.  Capital  must  for 
its  own  sake, as  well  as  for  humanity’s  sake,be  mindful 
of  its  own  duties  and  of  the  rights  and  interests  of 
labor.  The  solution  to  the  differences  between  capi- 
tal and  labor  is  necessarily  complex,  and  no  one  pre- 
cise form  has  been  or  can  be  found.  A generous 
sense  of  justice  toward  all,  a deep  love  of  one’s  fel- 
lows, and  attentive  listenings  to  the  teachings  of 
Christ  will  lead  on  all  sides  to  a better  understanding 
and  to  happier  mutual  relations.  Certain  it  is  that, so 
far  as  possible,  the  laborer  should  not  lack  the  means 
of  decent  support  for  himself  and  his  family;  he 
should  not  be  overburdened  either  in  weight  or  time 


AMERICAN  SLAI'ES 


125 


of  labor;  he  should  be  treated  as  a rational  and  a 
moral  being,  with  all  respect  due  his  human  dignity. 
His  remuneration,  if  diminishing  in  periods  of  de- 
pression, should  increase  in  periods  of  business  pros- 
perity. Industries  which  allow  some  profit-sharing, 
which  secures  the  laborer  from  want  in  sickness  and 
old  age,  gain  strength  to  themselves,  while  com- 
forting the  workingman.  And  as  to  some  means  of 
prevention  of  strikes  and  dangerous  disputes  between 
capital  and  labor,  nothing  better  so  far  has  been  sug- 
gested than  arbitration,  within  all  the  lines  of  wis- 
dom and  justice  that  national  legislation  can  throw 
around  it.  Arbitration  will  have  at  least  moral  con- 
clusions against  which  neither  capital  nor  labor  could 
well  stand  out.” 

The  noted  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  the  great  railway 
sovereign, the  all-around  orator  of  banquets,  the  pub- 
lic man  with  more  gumption  than  nine  out  of  ten  of 
his  kind,  insists  that  in  “avoiding  strikes  and  keeping 
the  men  in  a good  frame  of  mind  something  more  than 
money  is  necessary.  You  must  realize  that  the 
workingman  is  a man  and  that  he  wants  to  be  treated 
like  a man.  In  other  words,  he  wants  to  be  treated 
precisely  as  you  yourself  enjoy  being  treated.  If  you 
are  in  the  employ  of  any  man — even  in  the  highest 
position  in  his  establishment,  be  it  factory  or  shop — 
and  if  the  man  shows  an  indifference  to  your  person- 
ality, you  dislike  him,  and  some  day  you’re  going  to 


126 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


get  even,  aren’t  you?  The  fire  is  smoldering.  And 
for  each  time  he  grumbles  when  you  are  absent  a 
day  to  go  to  a funeral,  or  are  late  from  the  bedside 
of  a dying  member  of  the  family,  or  are  ill  yourself, 
you’re  laying  up  a grudge  that  will  be  repaid  in  his 
own  coin  with  interest.  Therefore,  I say  that  men 
who  are  in  the  employ  of  others  ask  for  more  than 
money.  More  money  will  not  satisfy  them — except 
temporarily.  They  will  take  it,  but  they  secretly  chafe. 
When  there  is  a grievance,  if  they  have  been  paid  in 
money  alone,  they  will  be  ready  to  join  in  with  the 
grieved  spirits.  Men  who  treat  their  employees  thus 
are  the  men  who  can  never  lower  their  wages  a dol- 
lar nor  a cent.  Woe  be  to  them  if  they  try  to  ^come 
down’  upon  the  only  coin  in  which  the  men  are  paid. 
But  if  they  have  treated  their  men  like  men — ^even 
like  gentlemen — they  can  do  a great  deal  with  them. 
Try  this,  and  see  for  yourself.” 

Ex-Senator  J.  R.  Doolittle,  a noted  judge,  jurist 
and  statesman,  a man  who  by  reason  of  his  profes- 
sion is  expected  to  profoundly  study  great  public 
questions  from  all  points,  suggested  in  an  open  letter 
to  Mr.  Gompers,  President  of  the  American  Feder- 
ation of  Labor,  a number  of  reforms  as  to  industrial 
troubles,  one  of  them  being  that- — “a  law  should  be 
enacted  by  each  State  in  this  Union  that  in  all  dis- 
putes between  State  corporations  and  their  employees 
on  the  subject  of  lockouts,  strikes,  and  the  rate  of 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


127 


wages,  if  the  employees,  or  a majority  in  any  branch 
thereof,  shall  be  desirous  and  willing  to  submit  the 
matter  to  the  decision  of  coihpetent  arbitrators  and 
the  corporation  shall  refuse,  then  they  may  apply  to 
the  Circuit  Court  having  jurisdiction  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  three  impartial  and  competent  persons.  If 
the  parties  are  unable  to  agree  upon  them,  each  shall 
name  one,  and  the  court  shall  name  the  third,  and 
their  award  shall  be  final  and  binding  for  such-period 
as  may  be  fixed  by  law.” 

Justice  Brewer  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
is  reported  as  saying  in  commenting  on  the  connection 
of  trade  unions  with  the  railway  strike:  “Some  peo- 
ple think  that  it  will  annihilate  them,  but  I believe  that 
it  will,  in  the  end,  make  labor  organizations  stronger. 
They  will  see  the  necessity  of  placing  at  their  head 
strong, cool, and  clear-headed  men, like  Arthur  of  the 
locomotive  engineers,  and  discarding  enthusiasts 
of  the  Debs  order.  With  such  men  at  their  head 
they  will  be  much  more  powerful,  and  great  trouble 
will  be  avoided.” 

The  remedy  of  profit-sharing,  as  urged  by  labor 
arbitrators,  brought  out  from  the  Chicago  Tribune 
the  following  among  other  objections:  “The  labor 
leaders  are  careful  not  to  explain  to  the  members  of 
the  unions  that  the  chances  of  increased  employ- 
ment being  given  in  shops  and  factories  depend  upon 
the  “bosses”  having  made  profits  and  invested  them 


128 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


in  the  business,  or  hoping  to  make  profits  had  bor- 
rowed and  put  in  new  capital;  but  these  facts  are 
highly  important  for  workmen  to  know.  Every 
additional  $i,ooo  of  capital  on  the  general  average, 
taking  all  lines  of  industrial  business  together,  will 
furnish  employment  to  one  additional  workman,  and 
his  earnings  spent  for  the  supply  of  his  and  his 
family’s  wants,  will  give  employment  to  many  kinds 
of  other  labor,  equal  in  its  functions  to  the  employ- 
ment of  another  man.  These  simple  facts  in  political 
economy  are  never  told  to  the  workman  in  the  labor 
lodges  by  their  walking  delegates  and  other  salaried 
agitators.” 

A Southern  paper,  the  News,  of  Galveston,  Texas, 
denounces  all  attempts  to  force  compulsory  arbitration 
upon  the  country,  saying  it  is  “foolishness,  and  the 
most  dangerous  kind  of  foolishness  at  that.  Every 
laboring  man  who  values  his  own  freedom  should 
hold  on  to  the  right  of  contract  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  his  enemies  or  of  his  friends  to  deprive  him  of  it. 
Without  this  right  he  is  a slave  to  some  personal 
or  impersonal  master,  with  nothing  that  he  can  call 
his  own — neither  his  time,  his  labor,  nor  the  form, 
the  application,  and  the  usufruct  of  it.” 

The  doctors  disagree,  and  it  is  certain  that  the 
patient  cannot  swallow  all  their  prescriptions.  The 
general  government,  with  a good  many  whereases,has 
appointed  a commission  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


129 


the  railway  troubles  of  1894.  That  commission  has 
invited  railways,  labor  organizations,  and  citizens 
having  either  a personal  or  patriotic  interest  in  the 
right  solution  of  those  questions;  and  those  who  can 
not  conveniently  attend  such  public  hearings, 
are  requested  to  present  their  views  and  sugges- 
tions in  writing  to  the  commission  at  any  time 
prior  to  the  date  of  such  public  hearing.  This  is 
certainly  very  kind  and  very  considerate  on  the  part 
of  the  President  and  Congress;  but  the  probabilities 
are  that  by  the  time  this  commission  is  ready  to  re- 
port, men  now  young  will  be  old;  and  by  the  time 
the  government  is  prepared  to  adopt  efficient  meas- 
ures of  reform,  the  millennium  or  a revolution  may 
have  rendered  them  unnecessary. 

If  some  of  the  imperturbable  philoso  phers  of  old 
Greece  or  Rome  were  alive,  and  were  revolving  in 
their  minds  the  woes  of  their  fellow  men,  a practice 
which  gave  them  more  wisdom  than  was  usable,  they 
might  pick  up  the  national  platform  of  the  Democratic 
party  and  read  the  acccusation  that  the  Republican 
party,  while  professing  a policy  of  reserving  the  pub- 
lic land  for  small  holdings  by  actual  settlers,  has 
given  away  the  people’s  heritage,  till  now  a few 
railroads  and  non-resident  aliens,  individual  and  cor- 
porate, possess  a larger  area  than  that  of  all  our 
farms  between  the  two  seas.  The  last  Democratic 
administration  reversed  the  improvident  and  unwise 


130 


AMERICAN  SLAyES 


policy  of  the  Republican  party  touching  the  public 
domain,  and  reclaimed  from  corporations  and  syn- 
dicates, alien  and  domestic,  and  restored  to  the  peo- 
ple, nearly  one  hundred  million  acres  of  valuable 
land.  They  would  not  be  surprised  by  either  the 
donation  or  the  reclamation,  for  these  men  were  sur- 
prised at  nothing.  If  they  sought  the  census  returns 
— a very  likely  action — they  would  discover  that  the 
general  government  had  567, 586, 783  acres  of  vacant 
land — land  to  be  had  for  a song.  They  might  then 
gravely  stroke  their  beards  and  wag  their  heads  and 
wonder  why  a republican  government,  with  armies  of 
unemployed  men,  did  not  arrange  with  those  men, 
upon  reasonable  terms  and  in  a fatherly  way,  to  oc- 
cupy, improve  and  reclaim  from  savage  nature  this 
vast  acreage.  They  might  regard  with  alarm  a con- 
dition of  society  that  allowed  great  cities  to  be  filled 
up  with  a reckless,  improvident  class  of  people,  who 
were  a constant  menace  to  law  and  order,  while  the 
great  west  was  burdened  with  untilled  lands  which 
these  people  should  be  made  to  cultivate  either  by 
force  or  reward,  and  so  relieve  the  pressure  from  in- 
dustry, distribute  the  fomenting  masses  of  disorderly 
elements  and  civilize  and  utilize  them  by  the  influ- 
ence of  nature. 

To  the  American  Slaves  these  philosophers  perti- 
nently might  render  this  advice: 

“Think  for  yourselves. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


131 


“Act  for  yourselves. 

“Trust  only  yourselves. 

“Keep  out  of  debt. 

“Spend  less  than  you  earn. 

“Consider  life  as  a difficult  lesson  to  be  learned  and 
arrange  to  take  your  vacation  in  the  life  to  come.” 


XIV. 


In  the  early  years  of  this  government  lived  a gen- 
tleman named  Franklin — Benjamin  Franklin.  He 
assisted  at  the  birth  of  the  republic,  helped  nurse  it 
through  all  those  , infantile  miseries  that  attend 
the  childhood  of  such  a kind  of  government,  and  was, 
besides,  a workman  and  a philosopher.  As  a type 
of  the  last  two  he  left  many  words  of  wisdom  which 
succeeding  generations  either  have  not  known,  or 
have  forgotten,  or  choose  to  disregard  on  the  plea 
that  his  ideas  are,  according  to  present  social  condi- 
tions, the  opinions  of  an  old  fogy.  A little  tract  which 
he  wrote  and  to  which  he  gave  the  title  of  “The  Way 
to  Wealth,”  is  so  meaty  with  pertinent  truths  as  to 
justify  its  reproduction  for  the  benefit  of  men  of  all 
trades  and  occupations  of  the  present  time. 

The  preface  to  the  original  London  edition  of 
sixty  years  ago  had  this  explanatory  introduction: 

“Dr.  Franklin,  wishing  to  collect  into  one  place 
all  the  sayings  upon  the  following  subjects  which  he 
had  dropped  in  the  course  of  publishing  the  Alma- 
nac called  ‘Poor  Richard,’  introduces  Father  Abra- 
ham for  this  purpose.  Hence  it  is  that  Poor  Richard 
is  so  often  quoted,  and  that  in  the  present  title  he  is 

133 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


133 


said  to  be  improved.  Notwithstanding  the  stroke  of 
humor  in  the  concluding  paragraph  of  this  address, 
Poor  Richard  Saunders  and  Father  Abraham  have 
proved,  in  America,  that  they  are  no  common 
preachers.” 

This  little  document,  so  wise  in  its  sayings,  and 
with  those  sayings  more  valuable  to  the  present  work- 
ing people  of  the  world  than  anything  that  the  great 
Solomon  uttered,  begins  in  this  way: 

“Courteous  Reader: — 

“I  have  heard  that  nothing  gives  an  author  so  great 
pleasure,  as  to  find  his  works  respectfully  quoted  by 
others.  Judge,  then,  how  much  I must  have  been 
gratified  by  an  incident  I am  going  to  relate  to  you. 
I stopped  my  horse,  lately,  where  a number^  of  peo- 
ple were  collected  at  an  auction  of  merchants’  goods. 
The  hour  of  the  sale  not  being  come,  they  were  con- 
versing on  the  badness  of  the  times;  and  one  of  the 
company  called  to  a plain,  clean  old  man,  with  white 
locks: 

“‘Pray,  Father  Abraham,  what  think  you  of  the 
times.?  Will  not  these  heavy  taxes  quite  ruin  the 
country.?  How  shall  we  ever  be  able  to  pay  them.? 
What  would  you  advise  us  to  do.?’ 

“Father  Abraham  stood  up  and  replied: 

“‘If  you  would  have  my  advice,  I will  give  it  you 
in  short,  for  “a  word  to  the  wise  is  enough,”  as  Poor 
Richard  says.’ 


134 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


“They  joined  in  desiring  him  to  speak  his  mind, 
and,  gathering  around  him,  he  proceeded  as  follows: 

“‘Friends,’  said  he,  ‘the  taxes  are  indeed  very 
heavy,  and  if  those  laid  on  by  the  government  were 
the  only  ones  we  had  to  pay,  we  might  more  easily 
discharge  them;  but  we  have  many  others,  and  much 
more  grievous  to  some  of  us.  We  are  taxed  twice 
as  much  by  our  idleness,  three  times  as  much  by  our 
pride,  and  four  times  as  much  by  our  folly;  and  from 
these  taxes  the  commissioners  cannot  ease  or  deliver 
us,  by  allowing  an  abatement.  However,  let  us 
harken  to  good  advice,  and  something  may  be  done 
for  us.  “God  helps  them  that  help  themselves,”  as 
Poor  Richard  says. 

“‘It.  would  be  thought  a hard  government  that 
should  tax  its  people  one  tenth  part  of  their  time  to 
be  employed  in  its  service;  but  idleness  taxes  many 
of  us  much  more.  Sloth,  by  bringing  on  disease, 
absolutely  shortens  life.  “Sloth,  like  rust,  consumes 
faster  than  labor  wears;  while  the  used  key  is  al- 
ways bright,”  as  Poor  Richard  says.  “But  dost  thou 
love  life?  then  do  not  squander  time,  for  that  is  the 
stuff  life  is  made  of,”  as  Poor  Richard  says.  How 
much  more  than  is  necessary  do  we  spend  in  sleep! 
forgetting  that  “the  sleeping  fox  catches  no  poultry, 
and  that  there  will  be  sleeping  enough  in  the  grave,” 
as  Poor  Richard  says. 

“‘If  time  be  of  all  things  the  most  precious,  wast- 


AMERICAtJ  SLAVES 


135 


ing  time  must  be,  as  Poor  Richard  says,  “the  great- 
est prodigality !”  since  as  he  elsewhere  tells  us,  “lost 
time  is  never  found  again;  and  what  we  call  time 
enough,  always  proves  little  enough.”  Let  us,  then, 
up  and  be  doing,  and  doing  to  the  purpose;  so,  by 
diligence,  shall  we  do  more  with  less  perplexity. 

“‘Sloth  makes  all  things  difficult,  but  industry  all 
easy ; and  he  that  riseth  late  must  trot  all  day,  and 
shall  scarce  overtake  his  business  at  night;  while 
laziness  travels  so  slowly,  that  poverty  soon  over- 
takes him.  Drive  thy  business,  let  not  that  drive 
thee,  and  “early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise  makes  a 
man  healthy,  wealthy  and  wise,”  as  Poor  Richard 
says. 

‘“So  what  signify  wishing  and  hoping  for  better 
times?  We  may  make  these  times  better,  if  we  be- 
stir ourselves.  Industry  need  not  wish,  and  he  that 
lives  upon  hope  will  die  fasting.  There  are  no  gains 
without  pains;  then,  help  hands, for  I have  no  lands, 
or,  if  I have,  they  are  smartly  taxed. 

“‘He  that  hath  a trade,  hath  an  estate;  and  he 
that  hath  a calling,  hath  an  office  of  profit  and  honor,” 
as  Poor  Richard  says.  But  then  the  trade  must  be 
worked  at,  and  the  calling  well  followed,  or  neither 
the  estate  nor  the  office  will  enable  us  to  pay  our 
taxes.  If  we  are  industrious  we  shall  never  starve ; for, 
at  the  working  man’s  house  hunger  looks  in,  but 
does  not  enter.  Nor  will  the  bailiff  or  constable 


136 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


enter;  for  industry  pays  debts,  while  despair  in- 
creases them. 

“‘What  though  you  have  found  no  treasure,  nor 
has  any  rich  relative  left  you  a legacy;  diligence  is 
the  mother  of  good  luck,  and  God  gives  all  things 
to  industry.  Then  plow  deep,  while  sluggards  sleep, 
and  you  shall  have  corn  to  sell  and  to  keep.  Work 
while  it  is  called,  ‘to-day,’  for  you  know  not  how 
much  you  may  be  hindered  to-morrow.  “One  to- 
day is  worth  two  to-morrows,”  as  Poor  Richard  says; 
and  further,  “Never  leave  that  till  to-morrow  which 
you  can  do  to-day.” 

(i)‘“Ifyou  were  a servant, would  you  not  be  ashamed 
that  a good  master  should  catch  you  idle .?  Are  you, 
then,  your  own  master.?  Be  ashamed  to  catch  your- 
self idle,  when  there  is  so  much  to  be  done  for  your- 
self, your  family,  your  country,  and  benevolent  move- 
ments. Handle  your  tools  without  mittens;  remem- 
ber that  “the  cat  in  gloves  catches  no  mice,”  as 
Poor  Richard  says.  It  is  true,  there  is  much  to  be 
done;  and,  perhaps,  you  are  weak  handed;  but  stick 
to  it  steadily,  and  you  will  see  great  effects;  for 
constant  dropping  wears  away  stone;  and  by  diligence 
and  patience  the  mouse  ate  into  the  cable;  and  little 
strokes  fell  great  oaks. 

“‘Methinks  I hear  some  of  you  say:  “Must  a man 
afford  himself  no  leisure?”  I will  tell  thee, my  friend, 
what  Poor  Richard  says:  “Employ  thy  time  well,  if 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


m 

thou  meanest  to  gain  leisure ; and  since  thou  art 
not  sure  of  a minute,  throw  not  away  an  hour.” 
Leisure  is  time  for  doing  something  useful;  this 
leisure  the  diligent  man  will  obtain,  but  the  lazy  man 
never;  for  a life  of  leisure  and  a life  of  laziness  are 
two  things.  Many,  without  labor,  would  live  by 
their  wits  only;  but  they  break  for  want  of  stock; 
whereas,  industry  gives  comfort,  and  plenty,  and 
respect.  Fly  pleasures,  and  they  will  follow  you. 
The  diligent  spinner  has  a large  shift;  and,  now  I 
have  a sheep  and  a cow,  everybody  bids  me  good- 
morrow. 

(2)“ ‘But  with  our  industry  we  must  likewise  be 
steady,  settled  and  careful,  and  oversee  our  own  affairs 
with  our  own  eyes,  and  not  trust  too  much  to 
others;  for  as  Poor  Richard  says: 

“I  never  saw  an  oft  removed  tree, 

Nor  yet  an  oft  removed  family, 

That  throve  so  well  as  those  that  settled  be.” 

‘“And  again,  “Three  moves  are  as  bad  as  a fire;” 
and  again,  “Keep  thy  shop  and  thy  shop  will  keep 
thee;”  and  again,  “If  you  would  have  your  business 
done,  go;  if  not,  send.”  And  again: 

“He  that  by  the  plow  would  thrive, 

Himself  must  either  hold  or  drive.” 

“‘And  again,  “The  eye  of  the  master  will  do  more 
work  than  both  his  hands;”  and  again,  “Want  of 
care  does  us  more  damage  than  want  of  knowledge;” 


138 


AMERICA}^  SLAyE^ 


and  again,  “Not  to  oversee  workmen,  is  to  leave 
them  your  purse  open.” 

‘“Trusting  too  much  to  others’  care  is  the  ruin  of 
many;  for,  in  the  affairs  of  this  world,  men  are  saved 
not  by  faith,  but  by  the  want  of  it.  But  a man’s 
own  care  is  profitable;  for,  if  you  would  have  a faith- 
ful servant,  and  one  that  you  like,  serve  yourself. 
A little  neglect  may  breed  great  mischief;  for  want 
of  a nail  the  shoe  was  lost;  for  want  of  a shoe  the 
horse  was  lost;  and  for  want  of  a horse  the  rider 
was  lost,  being  overtaken  and  slain  by  the  enemy — 
all  for  want  of  a little  care  about  a horse’s  shoe  nail. 

(3)“  ‘So  much  for  industry, my  friends,  and  atten- 
tion to  one’s  own  business;  but  to  these  we  must  add 
frugality,  if  we  would  make  our  industry  more  certainly 
successful.  A man  may,  if  he  knows  not  how  to 
save  as  he  gets,  keep  his  nose  all  his  life  to  the  grind- 
stone, and  die  not  worth  a groat  at  last.  A fat 
kitchen  makes  a lean  will;  and — 

Many  estates  are  spent  in  getting, 

Since  women  for  tea  forsook  spinning  and  knitting, 

And  men  for  punch  forsook  hewing  and  splitting. 

“‘If  you  would  be  wealthy,  think  of  saving  as  well 
as  of  getting.  The  Indies  have  not  made  Spain  rich, 
because  her  outgoes  are  greater  than  her  incomes. 
Away,  then,  with  your  expensive  follies,  and  you 
will  not  then  have  so  much  cause  to  complain  of 
hard  times,  heavy  taxes  and  chargeable  families;  for 

Woman  and  wine,  game  and  deceit 
Make  the  wealth  small,  and  the  want  great. 


AMERICAN  SLAVES  139 

‘“And  further,  what  maintains  one  vice  would  bring 
up  two  children.  You  may  think,  perhaps,  that  a lit- 
tle tea,  or  a little  punch  now  and  then,  diet  a little 
more  costly,  clothes  a little  finer,  and  a little  enter- 
tainment now  and  then, can  be  no  great  matter;  but 
remember,  many  a little  makes  a mickle. 

“‘Beware  of  little  expenses!  “A  small  leak  will 
sink  a big  ship,”  as  Poor  Richard  says;  and  again, 
“Who  dainties  love, shall  beggars  prove;”  and  more- 
over, “Fools  make  feasts,  and  wise  men  eat  them.” 
Remember  what  Poor  Richard  says:  “Buy  what 
thou  hast  no  need  of,  and  ere  long  thou  shalt  sell 
thy  necessaries.”  And  again,  “It  is  foolish  to  lay 
out  money  in  the  purchase  of  a repentance;”  many 
a one,  for  the  sake  of  finery  on  the  back,  has  gone 
with  a hungry  belly  and  half  starved  his  family. 
“Silks  and  satins,  scarlet  and  velvets,  put  out  the 
kitchen  fire,”  as  Poor  Richard  says.  These  are  not 
the  necessaries  of  life;  they  can  scarcely  be  called 
the  convenience's;  and  yet,  only  because  they  look 
pretty,  how  many  want  to  have  them!  By  these  and 
other  extravagances,  the  genteel  are  reduced  to 
poverty,  and  forced  to  borrow  of  those  whom  they 
formerly  despised,  but  who,  through  industry  and 
frugality,  have  maintained  their  standing;  in  which 
case  it  appears  plainly  that  “a  plowman  on  his  legs 
is  higher  than  a gentleman  on  his  knees,”  as  Poor 
Richard  says.  “Always  taking  out  of  the  meal-tub. 


140 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


and  never  putting  in,  soon  comes  to  the  bottom,” 
as  Poor  Richard  says;  and  then,  when  the  well  is 
dry,  they  know  the  worth  of  water. 

“‘If  you  would  know  the  value  of  money,  go  and 
try  to  borrow  some;  for  “he  that  goes  a borrowing, 
goes  a sorrowing,”  as  Poor  Richard  says;  and,  indeed, 
so  does  he  that  lends  to  such  people,  when  he  goes 
to  get  it  again.  Poor  Dick  further  advises,  and  says: 

Fond  pride  of  dress  is  sure  a very  curse: 

Ere  fancy  you  consult,  consult  your  purse. 

‘“And  again,  “Pride  is  as  loud  a beggar  as  Want, 
and  a great  deal  more  saucy.”  When  you  have 
bought  one  fine  thing,  you  must  buy  ten  more,  that 
your  appearance  may  be  all  of  a piece;  but  Poor  Dick 
says,  “It  is  easier  to  suppress  the  first  desire, than  to 
satisfy  all  that  follow  it.”  And  it  is  as  truly  folly  for 
the  poor  to  ape  the  rich,  as  for  the  frog  to  swell,  in 
order  to  equal  the  ox.  It  is,  however,  a folly  soon 
punished;  for, as  Poor  Richard  says,  “Pride  that  dines 
on  Vanity  sups  on  Contempt.  Pride  breakfasted  with 
Plenty,  dined  with  Poverty,  and  supped  with  Infamy. 

“ ‘After  all,  what  use  is  this  pride  of  appearance,  for 
which  so  much  is  risked,  so  much  is  suffered?  It 
cannot  promote  health,  nor  ease  pain;  it  makes  no 
increase  of  merit  in  the  person,  it  creates  envy,  it 
hastens  misfortune.  But  what  madness  it  must  be 
to  run  in  debt  for  these  superfluities!  We  are  offered 
by  the  terms  of  this  sale,  six  months  credit,  and  that, 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


141 


perhaps,  has  induced  some  of  us  to  attend  it,  be- 
cause we  cannot  spare  the  ready  money,  and  hope 
now  to  be  fine  without  it.  But,  ah!  think  what 
you  do  when  you  run  in  debt.  You  give  to  another 
power  over  your  liberty.  If  you  cannot  pay  at  the 
time,  you  will  be  ashamed  to  see  your  creditor;  you 
will  be  in  fear  when  you  speak  to  him;  you  will 
make  poor,  pitiful,  sneaking  excuses;  and  by  de- 
grees come  to  lose  your  veracity,  and  sink  into  base 
downright  lying;  for  “the  second  vice  is  lying,  the 
first  is  running  in  debt,”  as  Poor  Richard  says.  Ly- 
ing rides  upon  debt’s  back;  whereas  a free-born  man 
ought  not  to  be  ashamed  or  afraid  to  see  or  speak  to 
any  man  living.  But  poverty  often  deprives  a man 
of  all  spirit  and  virtue.  It  is  hard  for  an  empty  bag 
to  stand  upright.  What  would  you  think  of  that 
prince,  or  of  that  government,  who  should  issue 
an  edict  forbidding  you  to  dress  like  a gentleman  or 
gentlewoman,  on  pain  of  imprisonment  or  servitude? 
Would  you  not  say  you  are  free,  have  a right  to 
dress  as  you  please,  and  that  such  an  edict  would 
be  a breach  of  your  privileges,  and  such  a govern- 
ment tyrannical?  And  yet  you  are  about  to  put  your- 
self under  that  tyranny,  when  you  run  in  debt  for 
such  dress.  Your  creditor  has  authority,  at  his 
pleasure,  to  deprive  you  of  y our  liberty,  by  confining 
you  in  jail  for  life,  or  by  selling  you  for  a servant,  if 
you  should  not  be  able  to  pay  him.  When  you  have 


142 


yiMERICAN  SLAVES 


got  your  bargain,  you  may,  perhaps,  think  little  of 
payment;  but,  as  Poor  Richard  says,  “creditors 
have  better  memories  than  debtors;  creditors  are 
a superstitious  sect,  great  observers  of  set  days  and 
times.  ” The  day  comes  around  before  you  are  aware, 
and  the  demand  is  made  before  you  are  prepared  to 
satisfy  it;  or  if  you  bear  your  debt  in  mind,  the 
term,  which  at  first  seems  so  long, will,  as  it  lessens, 
appear  extremely  short.  Time  will  seem  to  have 
added  wings  to  his  hands  as  well  as  his  shoulders. 

Gain  may  be  temporary  and  uncertain;  but  ever, 
while  you  live,  expense  is  constant  and  certain,  and 
“it  is  easier  to  build  two  chimneys  than  to  keep  one 
in  fuel,”  as  Poor  Richard  says.  So  rather  go  to  bed 
supperless  than  rise  in  debt. 

Get  what  you  can,  and  what  you  get  hold; 

’Tis  the  stone  that  will  turn  all  your  lead  into  gold. 

“ 'This  doctrine, my  friends,  is  reason  and  wisdom; 
but,  after  all,  do  not  depend  too  much  upon  your  own 
industry,  and  frugality,  and  prudence,  though  ex- 
cellent things;  for  they  may  all  be  blasted  without 
the  blessing  of  heaven;  and,  therefore,  ask  that 
blessing  humbly,  and  be  not  uncharitable  to  those 
that  at  present  seem  to  want  it,  but  comfort  and 
help  them.  Remember,  Job  suffered,  and  was  after- 
wards prosperous. 

“ ‘And  now, to  conclude — “Experience  keeps  a dear 
school,  but  fools  will  learn  in  no  other,”  as  Poor 


yIMERICAN  SLAVES 


143 


Richard  says,  “and  scarce  in  that,  for  it  is  true  we 
may  give  advice,  but  we  cannot  give  conduct.”  How- 
ever, remember  this — “They  that  will  not  be  coun- 
seled cannot  be  helped;”  and,  further,  “If  you  will 
not  hear  Reason,  she  will  surely  rap  your  knuckles,” 
as  Poor  Richard  says.  ’ ” 

“Thus  the  old  gentleman  ended  his  harangue.  The 
people  heard  it,  and  approved  the  doctrine,  and  im- 
mediately practiced  the  contrary,  just  as  if  it  had 
been  a common  sermon;  for  the  auction  opened,  and 
they  began  to  buy  extravagantly.” 

Times  have  not  changed  greatly  since  this  philoso- 
pher put  into  their  settings  these  jewels  of  thought. 
People  have  quoted  Poor  Richard’s  wise  sayings  for 
over  half  a century,  and  admitted  their  truthfulness 
without  knowing  their  author;  but  like  the  crowd 
at  the  auction,  they  have  acted  to  the  contrary. 
From  them  we  find  that  the  American  Slave  is  not  a 
creature  of  the  industrial  conditions  of  the  present 
day;  nor  has  his  estate  in  society  been  unfavorably 
affected  by  improvements  in  machinery  and  labor- 
saving  and  labor-creating  inventions  imperatively 
demanded  by  a rapid  increase  in  population  and  the 
necessities  arising  from  the  wants  of  the  people.  But 
the  workman’s  extravagances  have  more  than  kept 
pace  with  the  increase  in  cheapened  luxuries,  until 
he  has  come  to  indulge  in  the  use  of  articles  which 
only  the  wealthy  should  afford,  and  to  obtain  which 


144 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


he  does  not  sacrifice  his  needs,  but  simply  runs  in 
debt  either  for  the  necessaries  or  the  luxuries. 

We  have  added  these  maxims  not  simply  because 
they  are  absolute  and  practical  truths,  but  because 
they  ought  to  be  embodied  in  those  daily  lessons  of 
industrial  life  which  every  workman  is  compelled  to 
study,  and  for  the  bitterness  of  whose  tasks  these 
pellets  of  wisdom  may  afford  either  relief  or  cure. 


XV. 


Viewing,  as  dispassionately  as  average  human 
nature  will  permit,  the  wide-spread  and  seditious 
industrial  convulsions  of  the  last  twenty  years,  and 
especially  the  almost  instantaneous  strikes  of  1894 
with  their  political  effects,  there  are  furnished  suffi- 
cient truths  to  justify  the  prophecy  that  the  republic 
of  the  United  States  is  in  the  incipient  stages  of 
dissolution.  The  disclosures  of  these  happily 
suppressed  rebellions  show  that  the  entire  construc- 
tion of  the  government  now  rests  upon  the  cones  of 
labor  volcanoes.  It  has  been  thus  revealed  that  this 
great  federation  of  mighty  states  is  so  underrun  by 
the  fires  of  political,  and,  as  a necessary  sequence,  of 
labor  conspiracies,  and  that  such  unreconcilable  sec- 
tional antagonisms  are  being  developed  by  unfair 
legislation,  as  to  justify  the  assertion  that  unless 
there  happens  a miracle  in  statesmanship,  or  a radi- 
cal revolution  of  public  sentiment  and  action  on 
economic  questions,  there  will  not  be,  in  fifty  years, 
such  a government  as  the  Republic  of  the.  United 
States, 

Revolutions  are  crimes  begotten  by  crimes.  They 
145 


146 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


are  the  desperate  measures  of  desperate  men.  They 
may  be  lawful  in  inception  and  criminal  in  results; 
or  criminal  in  birth  and  philanthropic  in  effects.  It 
was  treason  that  gave  us  liberty.  History  is  fruitful 
with  examples  as  to  how  often  liberty  has  been  mur- 
dered by  treason.  Governor  McKinley,  of  Ohio,  in 
a Fourth  of  July  address,  began  it  by  the  assertion 
that  “we  are  the  freest  government  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,”  and  concluded  by  the  announcement,  not 
exactly  the  coloring  expected  in  a picture  of  freedom, 
that — “with  industrial  armies  marching  on  Wash- 
ington, and  the  military  of  both  the  States  and  the 
United  States  marching  on  organized  labor;  with 
a coal  miners’  strike  that  cost  the  country  millions  of 
dollars  just  ended,  and  a railroad  strike  that  will  cost 
no  one  yet  knows  how  many  millions  more,  now  in 
progress;  with  tens  of  thousands  toiling  for  less  than 
enough  to  secure  the  necessary  comforts  of  life,  and 
other  tens  of  thousands  in  idleness;  with  unrest  and 
sullen  dissatisfaction  almost  universal,  we  have  a con- 
dition, not  a theory,  confronting  us,  that  invites  and 
demands  immediate  and  serious  attention.”  Do  such 
ominous  signs — not  in  the  skies,  but  on  land,  tangible 
signs  of  insurrection — portend  the  stability  of  “the 
freest  government.?” 

The  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  the  Continental  Congress  which  backed  that 
document,  wrote  and  acted  for  comparatively  few 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


147 


people.  Those  people  made  up  a nation  of  slave 
holders — a nation  of  white  men  owning  black  men 
as  chattels.  The  Declaration  was  conceived,  endorsed 
and  executed  by  slaveholders.  Until  Lincoln’s, eman- 
cipation proclamation  the  United  States  was  a para- 
doxical republic  of  liberty  and  slavery.  Since  the 
primal  statesmen  of  this  land  gave  us  a constitution, 
one  hundred  and  seven  years  ago,  the  conditions  of 
territory,  people,  thoughts,  actions,  manners  of  life, 
surroundings  and  governmental  contingencies  have 
been  wonderfully  changed.  The  people  of  1787  were 
no  more  like  the  people  of  i894than  the  Puritan  of  that' 
day  was  like  the  Protestant  of  to-day.  No  other 
revolution  ever  wrought,  in  so  brief  a time,  such 
astounding  changes  in  places,  ideas,  and  customs.  It 
is  not,  then,  a matter  of  surprise  that  the  constitution 
which  admirably  met  the  wants  of  the  thirteen  origi- 
nal states  is  a noticeable  misfit  for  the  forty-four  grand 
commonwealths  of  to-day.  We  are  working  with 
the  legislative  tools  of  a century  ago.  We  are  strug- 
gling to  administer  the  affairs  of  a huge  empire  with  the 
rules  and  by-laws  and  penalties  originated  for  the 
control  of  a small  family  of  sparsely  settled  states. 
From  a little  community  of  emaciated  rebels  we  have 
become  a nation  of  vast  resources,  of  tremendous 
power,  of  irresistible  people.  But,  contemplating  the 
present,  have  we,  as  federated  states,  reached  the 
culminating  point  as  to  unity,  prosperity  and  amity? 


148 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


There  have  been  other  commonwealths,  other  re- 
publics, other  self-governing  peoples.  History  is  for- 
gotten in  the  rush  of  every-day  life,  and  national 
obliteration  is  recalled  principally  by  history  and 
ruins.  These  dead  governments  have  tumbled  down 
in  times  of  peace,  been  shattered  by  war,  or  suffered 
dissolution  by  political  suicide.  Our  great  civil  war 
demonstrated  the  elemental  weakness  of  the  fabric 
known  as  the  United  States.  Of  the  disintegrating 
forces  of  that  perilous  period  only  one  was  eliminated 
— the  BlackSlave.  But  other  evils  have  been  growing, 
with  rank  luxuriance,  and  breeding  the  parasites  of 
such  a license  of  thought,  speech  and  action  as  to 
make  treason  as  familiar  as  the  sun  by  day  and  the 
stars  by  night.  In  other  countries  our  systems  of 
debt,  politics  and  finance  are  the  subject  of  more 
than  desultory  study;  and  the  stability  of  the  govern- 
ment is  still  doubted  by  the  profounder  thinkers  of 
the  day,  who  base  their  conclusions,  in  part,  on  the 
loose  administration  of  the  laws,  and  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  people  to,  if  not  their  defiance  of,  such 
laws.  As  for  the  laws  themselves,  sinister  legislation 
secures  such  flexibility  in  their  construction  that  the 
people  for  whose  protection  they  were  enacted  are 
too  often  made  to  suffer  the  penalty  intended  for  the 
criminal  who  breaks  them.  When  youngsters  sit  in 
judgment  on  the  bench,  and  veterans,  before  them, 
manipulate  the  laws  to  suit  themselves,  taking  ad- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


149 


Vantage  of  ignorance  and  inexperience  as  Hindu  jug- 
glers do  their  tricks,  law  naturally  loses  its  solemnity 
and  respectability,  and  the  people  their  hope  of  jus- 
tice. Or,  going  higher,  what  should  a foreigner,  let 
alone  a native,  think  of  a federal  court  that  would 
permit  the  utterance,  during  the  consideration  of  a 
contempt  case  growing  out  of  the  railway  strike,  of 
the  sentiment  that  the  railroad  workers  had  a right 
to  combine  and  resist,  and  that  their  resistance  would 
“raise  the  original  question — original  always  in  this 
republic — whether  the  people  are  sovereign,  or 
whether  they  have  delegated  all  their  sovereignty 
to  representatives  who  may  sleep  upon  their  trust; 
whether  when  the  representatives  sleep  upon  their 
trust,  be  it  court  or  be  it  legislature,  the  inherent 
sovereignty  for  redress  is  not  remitted  by  them 
back  to  the  sovereign  citizen  to  protest  against  the 
usurpation  of  tyranny  by  the  combination  and  conspir- 
acy of  wicked  men  and  wicked  managers?” 

Little  things  like  these  do  not  puzzle  the  old  world 
students,  though  they  may  be  surprised  at  the  judi- 
cial inanition  which  characterizes  their  reception. 

The  public  events  of  each  hour,  day,  week,  month 
and  year  compel  us  to  contemplate,  with  feelings  of 
shame,  congressional  bodies^criminally  negligent  of 
their  sacred  duties  to  the  people  whom  they  are 
expected  to  represent,  whose  members  are  involved 
in  the  schemes  of  syndicates  and  trusts,  and  bar- 


150  AMERICAN  SLAVES 

nacled  with  small  dishonors  when  big  ones  are 
scarce.  Is  it  not  true  that  legislatures  meet,  and 
corrupt  themselves,  or  spoil  the  honor  of  their  state 
by  enactments  for  personal  or  corporate  greed,  rather 
than  by  laws  for  the  public  welfare? 

Judges  on  the  bench  now  and  then  sully  their  er- 
mine with  official  decrees  and  unofficial  opinions  in 
favor  of  monopolies  and  against  the  people — judges 
who  obtained  their  preferment  to  place  by  tricks  of 
suffrage  that  were  the  culmination  of  dishonest  or 
tricky  partisanship. 

States  which  should  be  untiringly  and  forever  jeal- 
ous of  the  vital  rights  of  the  majority,  have  passed 
into  the  possession  of  the  politicians;  and  from  being 
known  as  the  ‘^mothers  of  presidents’^  and  guardians 
of  the  people,  have  sunk  so  low  as  to  be  little  better 
than  ‘‘fences”  for  the  stolen  goods  of  political  vic- 
tories. 

The  Church  is  no  longer  the  sanctuary  of  the  poor, 
the  persecuted  and  the  erring,  in  whose  temples  the 
weary  spirit  may  be  at  rest  for  a while,  and  the 
wickedness  of  life  be  buried  in  the  strains  of  the 
organ,  or  borne  heavenwards  on  the  prayers  of  hon- 
est priests.  Rather  is  it  the  caterer  to  the  whims 
of  people  dyspeptic  with  doctrines  for  the  rich  only; 
or,  as  a resort  for  invalid  souls  whose  faith  circu- 
lation is  feeble  and  stimulated  by  sugar-coated  doc- 
trines; or  it  is  the  trysting  place  of  grotesque  idol- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


151 


atries  in  fashion;  or  the  waiting-place  of  worldly 
envies;  or  the  treasure-house  of  all  the  isms  and 
schisms  to  which  religion  is  being  continually  sub- 
jected. 

With  Congress  recreant  to  its  solemn  trusts,  a Judi- 
ciary based  upon  corrupt  suffrage,  a State  indifferent 
to  the  wants  of  its  children,  and  a Church  oblivious 
to  the  teachings  of  the  Great  Master  who  created  it, 
what ‘shall  be  said  of  the  people  for  whom  these  ener- 
gies were  originated,  and  by  whom  they  are  permitted 
to  exist?  Feel  the  public  pulse  and  test  the  people’s 
tongue  and  temperature!  What  is  the  diagnosis? 

Deep  seated  disorder.  Rebellion,  Revolution,  An- 
archy. 

We  find  the  monopolist  arrayed  against  the  work- 
man, and  the  workman  against  the  capitalist.  We 
have  syndicates  of  wealth  on  one  side;  on  the  other 
syndicates  of  labor,  monopolies  of  organized  politi- 
cal elements,  weak  as  individuals  but  irresistible 
should  they  be  sagaciously  mobilized.  A dangerous 
recklessness  has  already  developed  marked  symp- 
toms. Capital  and  its  people  have  been  assaulted  on 
public  highways  and  their  property  burned  or  pillaged. 
The  ligatures  of  commerce  have  been  cut,  and  its 
ramified  systems  of  traffic  paralyzed  by  mob  vio- 
lence. Millions  of  dollars  will  not  make  good  the 
value  of  the  property  lost  and  the  time  wasted. 
Nothing  human  can  restore  to  life  those  who  perished 
in  opposing  the  law. 


152 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


But  Labor,  poorly  generaled  and  with  undrilled 
ranks,  has  won  a victory,  though  a meager  one,  for 
it  has  made  itself  heard.  Its  claimed  wrongs  have 
been  driven,  like  thunderbolts,  into  men’s  faces,  and 
fallen,  like  bombs,  into  an  obnoxious  Congress.  No 
matter  if  they  did  summon  an  army  and  were  beaten. 
The  mark  of  their  grip  on  human  events  is  inefface- 
able. 

As  one  result  of  this  glare  of  organized  disorder 
were  revealed  the  flickerings  of  tiny  flames  of  treason 
in  high  places.  Public  officials,  by  criminal  sloth- 
fulness, or  by  insurrectionary  sentiments,  have  op- 
posed the  general  government.  They  have  labored 
in  favor  of  a paternalism  of  inaction.  They  have 
conspired  for  ballots  while  a mobocracy  was  strug- 
gling to  disrupt  the  country  with  a fanaticism  that 
leaped  from  ocean  to  ocean.  When  the  chiefs  of  state 
and  city  governments  feed  sedition  with  words  of  sym- 
pathy, and  reenforce  it  with  the  alliance  of  culpable 
inaction,  then  the  people  should  look  guardedly  to- 
wards the  future. 

Had  the  strikers  of  1894  been  better  drilled  for 
patient  waiting;  had  their  unions  been  of  all  labors, 
united  by  one  purpose,  and  animated,  even  to  star- 
vation, by  one  resolve;  had  there  been  a calm,  clear- 
headed, dispassionate,  far-seeing  man  at  the  head  of 
the  movement;  and  had  there  been  unquestioning, 
unswerving  obedience  to  such  a leader — who  might 


AMERICA}^  SLAVES 


153 


have  been  a Bonaparte  and  a Bismarck  in  one  body 
— then  the  Republic  and  its  law-abiding  people  might 
have  had  a revolution  that  could  not  hav^  been  sup- 
pressed. They  might  have  been  strangled  into  sub- 
mission to  a set  of  rulers  and  into  an  allegiance  to  a 
new  style  of  government  the  like  of  which,  though 
successful,  cannot  endure. 

Though  this  danger  be  passed,  there  is  yet  to  come 
the  overthrowing  shock,  the  wrenching  and  disrupt- 
ing struggle  of  sections.  Intensely  jealous  of  their 
sovereignty,  states  have  at  critical  periods  wavered 
in  their  loyalty  to  the  general  government.  But  to 
doubt,  to  hesitate  in  implicit  fealty  to  the  supreme 
power,  is  to  weaken ; to  weaken  is  an  initial  effort  in  the 
process  of  disintegration.  The  people  of  geographical 
sections  of  the  country  long  ago  found  a wide  diver- 
gence in  their  requirements  of  the  general  government, 
which  is  like  a sheep  to  be  sheared,  states  being  the 
shearers,  and  wool  clipping  being  as  close  to  the 
skin  as  possible,  without  drawing  blood.  But  the 
blood  will  be  drawn,  some  day. 

The  states  are  only  held  together  by  strings  of 
mutual  interest.  Each  governs  itself;  each  is  a law 
unto  itself.  States,  as  well  as  individuals,  may  riot. 
They  are,  already,  well-organized  communities.  They 
have  men,  arms,  money,  food — all  the  materials  of 
war.  They  have  no  standing  armies,  but  they  have 
the  seeds  for  them  in  the  militia.  Do  their  people 


154 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


want  war?  In  many  states  the  population  is  already 
leavened  with  a hatred  of  law  and  of  the  people 
who  abide  by  the  law.  It  is  claimed  by  these  maU 
contents  that  they  cannot,  under  the  present  one^ 
rous  condition  of  government,  enjoy  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.  There  is  a spirit  of  revolt 
among  the  laboring  classes,  a conspiracy  of  revolution 
among  politicians,  and  a taint  of  treasonable  independ- 
ence among  chief  magistrates. 

Besides  these  restive  components  of  the  governed 
are  the  farmers,  the  manufacturers  and  the  mine 
owners.  For  these  influential  factors  of  general  in- 
dustry the  legislation  of  federal  government  has,  as 
to  their  productions,  not  only  been  unwise  and  un- 
fair, but  has  created  feelings  of  dissatisfaction,  as  yet 
confined  only  to  murmurs,  for  which  no  adequate 
remedy  has  been  found,  every  attempt  at  harmonious 
action  resulting  in  collisions  with  the  interests  of 
other  people, in  other  businesses, in  other  states;  and 
he  will  be  a mad  statesman  who  undertakes  to  effect 
the  reconciliation  necessary  to  permanent  and  satis- 
factory adjustments.  In  these  times  it  is  idle  to 
talk  of  patriotism  when  the  State  comes  first  and 
the  general  government  last.  In  business,  patriot- 
ism is  only  an  abstract  sentiment ; it  is  self-interest 
that  makes  the  compact  and  enduring  unions. 

Fifty  years  hence,  what  will  be  the  government  of 
this  continent?  will  soon  be  a question  of  predomi- 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


155 


nant  interest.  A central  government  is  faintly  dis- 
cussed, but  declared  impracticable  because  states 
will  cede  no  more  power.  A constitutional  monarchy 
is  hinted  at;  but  we  are  wanting  in  an  aristocracy  and 
cannot,  under  present  laws,  import  seedlings,  and  the 
accretions,  by  marriage,  are  dishearteningly  slow. 

We  have  drawn  pictures  on  the  lines  of  existing 
circumstances.  Is  it  a treasonable  prophecy  to  de- 
clare, after  a consideration  of  the  facts  and  the  con- 
clusions to  be  drawn  from  them,  that  within  a cen- 
tury, perhaps  within  half  that  period,  there  will  be  a 
dissolution  of  the  United  States,  a bloodless  parti- 
tion of  this  great  continent,  and  the  formation,  as 
one  result,  of  four  strong  confederations — the  East 
with  its  capital  and  its  commerce;  the  South  with 
its  sugar,  its  cotton,  its  tobacco,  and  its  seaports;  a 
West  with  its  mines  and  the  Pacific  Ocean ; and  a 
Central  division,  composed  of  agricultural  commu- 
nities, to  be  the  hub  of  the  continent,  but  at  the  mercy 
of  all  the  rest — and  to  become  the  future  battle  field 
of  the  millions  of  struggling  people  yet  to  swarm  over 
the  land  and  to  fight  for  the  subsistence  which  men 
will  deny  and  which  nature  may  be  too  exhausted  to 
' afford  ? 

The  day  of  absolute  freedom  for  the  American 
Slave  is  not  likely  to  come  until  our  present  political 
and  financial  systems  are  purified  as  by  fire,  or  until 
the  new  continental  divisions  formed  on  the  ruin  of 


15^ 


AMERICAN  SLAVES 


the  old  regime,  give  to  a later  world  modernized  forms 
of  government,  sovereignties  cleansed  of  political 
tricksters  and  the  spoilage  carrion  that  breeds  them, 
with  capital  restricted  in  its  vulgar  tyranny,  and  a 
harmonious  working  of  what  are  now  discordant  ele- 
ments. The  American  Slave  of  the  year  1900  will 
not  have  his  kind  in  the  year  2000.  If  in  that  year 
there  are  governments,  they  will  be  the  governments 
either  of  men  absolutely  free  or  absolutely  slaves. 


THE  END. 


